Joanna Nemeh
4th year PhD Student in the Committee on Jewish Studies: Modern Jewish Thought, University of Chicago
BA - Saint Xavier University (2001)
MA - University of Chicago Divinity School (2004)
As a doctoral student in the Committee on Jewish Studies, I have studied under Professor Paul Mendes-Flohr. I completed my Master's degree in the Divinity school in the Spring of 2004, also under Professor Mendes-Flohr. I am also an adjunct professor in Philosophy at Saint Xavier University.
The work I am doing with the Committee focuses on the question of Jewish gender identity, specifically within the Folktale. This is an attempt to uncover the identity of women through various images of sexuality. One can approach this topic in a number of ways, from studying Rabbinic texts to a historical examination of Jewish laws and cultural practices. I began with modern Jewish thinking, where conceptions of identity (including gender) come to the fore. I then turn back to figures, images, myths of woman, and sexuality in the tradition and research the transformations they have undergone. I examine the uses that have been made of them, and the role they have played in specific historical and cultural circumstances.
As I now conceive the project, it will center on Jewish conceptions of female identity as these are embodied in images, figures, myths, stories, and more recently in films and even websites. I examine how they are studied, fashioned and/or refashioned. How have various conceptions of Jewish femininity been created, communicated, contested, and to what ends?
On my way towards this goal, I have recently taken up the art of documentary filmmaking under Judy Hoffman. I have, along with my husband Evan, produced and directed two short films: ARTA: The Anti-Road Trip Alliance and Most Peculiar. The latter, a documentary about modern women in the sex industry, has helped to inform my studies by allowing me to speak one on one with women in controversial employment. I hope to turn it into a full-length documentary.
For the past three years I have acted as Professor Michael Fishbane's research assistant. I have also spent the last four years as an adjunct professor in the Philosophy department at Saint Xavier University in Chicago where I have taught Plato, Dostoevsky, Kafka, and am currently putting together a class on Jewish feminist thinkers. This past year I interviewed both faculty and students, as well as created the content and images for the Committee on Jewish Studies website.