Elizabeth Alexander

Associate Professor

E-mail:
Phone: 434-924-6711
Personal Website

Address:
PO Box 400126
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4126

Research Interests

Judaism in the ancient world; literary approaches to rabbinic literature; talmudic and midrashic hermeneutics; orality in rabbinic culture; modern theological contexts for rabbinic literature; the role of law, legal reasoning and legal argumentation in Judaism; women and gender in rabbinic literature.

Education

• Bachelor of Arts (BA), Haverford College in Pennsylvania
• Master of Arts (MA), Yale University
• Master of Philosophy (MPHIL), Yale University
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Yale University

Publications, Awards, and Activities

Monographs

• Mishnah and the Shaping Influence of Oral Tradition, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
• Between Man and Woman: The Development of Gender in Rabbinic Law, manuscript in progress

Articles

• “The Orality of Rabbinic Writing,” Cambridge Companion to Rabbinic Literature, eds. Martin S. Jaffee and Charlotte Fonrobert, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming
• “Casuistic Elements in Mishnaic Law: Examples from Tractate Shavuot,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 10:3 (2003), 189-243.
• “Art, Argument and Ambiguity in the Talmud: Conflicting Conceptions of the Evil Impulse in b. Sukkah 51b-52a,” Hebrew Union College Annual 73:97-132.
• "The Impact of Feminism on Rabbinic Studies: The Impossible Paradox of Reading Women into Rabbinic Literature," Jews and Gender: The Challenge to Hierarchy, ed. Jonathan Frankel Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 101-118.
• "The Fixing of the Oral Mishnah and the Displacement of Meaning," Oral Tradition 14:1 (March 1999), 100-139.
• "Cracking Open the Fissures: Testing the Limits of Continuity," Textual Reasonings: Journal of the Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Network, Vol. 5, No. 3, November 1996, 14-16.
• "Dialogue on the Theme of Martyrdom: Sanctifying God with Our Lives? and Responses," The Journal of Post-Modern Jewish Philosophy Network, Vol. 5, No. 1, March 1996, 18-26.
• "Kol Nidre: A Formula of Liberation," Urim v'Tumin, Jewish Journal at Yale, Fall 1990.

Book Reviews and Booknotes

• Book Review in Nashim, forthcoming: Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism by Tamar Ross.
• Book Review in Shofar, forthcoming: Women, Birth and Death in Jewish Law and Practice by Rochelle Millen.
• Book Review in AJS Review 26:2 (Nov. 2002), 360-61: Rereading Talmud: Gender, Law and the Poetics of Sugyot by Aryeh Cohen.
• Booknote in Religious Studies Review, 27:4 (Oct. 2001), 424: Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Constructions of Biblical Gender by Charlotte Fonrobert.
• Booknote in Religious Studies Review, 26:4 (Oct. 2000), 394-5: Kol Nidre: Studies in the Development of Rabbinic Votive Institutions by Moshe Benovitz.

Honors

• 2004-2005 Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation Fellowship
• Summer 2003 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
• Summer 2002 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
• Summer 2001 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Research Stipend
• Summer 2000 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
• 1995-1996 National Foundation for Jewish Culture Dissertation Fellowship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Doctoral Scholarship, Yale University Dissertation Fellowship
• 1990-1994 Yale University Fellowship
• 1992-1993 Harry Axelrod Fellowship
• 1989 Phi Beta Kappa, High Departmental Honors, Best Senior Thesis in Religion

Current projects

• Between Man and Woman: Conceptions of Gender in Rabbinic Law, book manuscript in progress
• "The Origins of the Phrase 'Timebound, Positive Commandments,'" article manuscript in progress