Prof. Adia Mendelson-Maoz, from the Department of Language, Literature, and the Arts, investigates the multifaceted relationships between literature, ethics, politics, and culture, mainly in the context of Hebrew Literature and Israeli culture. Her recent books include (in English)
Multiculturalism in Israel – Literary Perspectives (Purdue UP, 2014); Borders, Territories, and Ethics: Hebrew Literature in the Shadow of the Intifada, (Purdue UP, 2018); and (in Hebrew)
Territories and Borders in the Shadow of the Intifada: Ethical Reading of Hebrew Literature 1987-2007 (Magnes Press 2021);
Center or Periphery: Identity Discourse in Israeli Literature (Open University Press, 2021). Mendelson-Maoz discovered Yoram Kaniuk's unpublished manuscript
Sabon (Soap, 2018) and served as a scientific editor for its publication. Currently she is completing a manuscript that aims to present a comprehensive picture of Kaniuk's literary endeavor, based on his personal archive.
Mendelson-Maoz is the chair of the MA Program in Cultural Studies and the chair of the DHSS Hub. She became involved in digital humanities through her work with Yoram Kaniuk's estate, where, together with Sinai Rusinek and Nitzan Gado, she investigated the subject of dogs and other animals in Kaniuk's work. In 2020, she won (together with Avi Shmidman of Bar-Ilan University) a Ministry of Science grant in the field of digital humanities. The project, "Computational Stylistic Profiles for the Analysis of Modern Hebrew Prose," uses computational stylometry as a tool for distant reading, which offers a new approach to the analysis of literary texts – one that replaces the selective reading of a canon. The project is expected to comprise a substantial contribution both to Hebrew literary stylometry and to the historiography of Hebrew literature.