Dr. Talya Fishman

Biography

Talya Fishman explores topics in Jewish history and culture from the ninth to the eighteenth centuries within broader regional contexts that include Christian and Muslim societies. Her book, 'Shaking Pillars of Exile: The Voice of the Fool, Early Modern Jewish Critique of Rabbinic Culture' (Stanford University Press, 1997), analyzes an early seventeenth-century heretical Hebrew text that reflects the theological and cultural struggles of conversos trying to re-embrace their ancestral faith. Fishman's research interests in Jewish legal cultures are evident in her work, 'Becoming People of the Talmud: Oral Torah and Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), which won the Nahum M. Sarna Award from the Jewish Book Council. Her ongoing research addresses the origins of Judaism's sub-cultures, including analysis of Ashkenazi and Sephardi legal systems. Fishman has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Charlotte Newcombe Guggenheim Foundations. She has lectured at universities in Israel, Germany, France, and China and serves on the editorial boards of various academic journals and committees.

Research Interests

Courses