Faculty
Director, Jewish Studies Program
Co-Director, Ethics Minor
Maurice Amado Professor of Applied Jewish Ethics and Civic Engagement
Ph.D., Ethics and Society, Graduate Division of Religion, Emory University, 2010
M.T.S., Christianity and Culture, Harvard Divinity School, 2000.
B.A., English and American Literature, Brandeis University, 1998.
Dr. Thompson鈥檚 research uses ethnography to investigate the cultural and moral categories that contemporary American Jews use to organize their individual and collective lives. Her first book,听Jewish on Their Own Terms: How Intermarried Couples are Changing American Judaism听(Rutgers University Press) examined the gap between discourses about intermarriage and the lived experiences of intermarried Jews. More recently, together with philosopher Allison B. Wolf, she co-edited听Applied Jewish Ethics: Beyond the Rabbinic Tradition听(Lexington Books) and co-established the book series New Directions in Applied Jewish Ethics.
Dr. Thompson鈥檚 work also appears 颈苍听Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food听补苍诲听Religion in Los Angeles: Religious Activism, Innovation, and Diversity in the Global City, and in academic journals including the听Journal of the American Academy of Religion,听Contemporary Jewry, and the听Journal of Jewish Identities. Her public scholarship has appeared 颈苍听The Forward听补苍诲听Haaretz听on topics including the #MeToo movement and doxing white supremacists.听
As part of her professorship in Applied Jewish Ethics and Civic Engagement, Dr. Thompson developed the first-ever secular university course on applied Jewish Ethics, along with a peer-reviewed Applied Jewish Ethics textbook and a companion website,听. She also developed an online map of Jewish sites in the San Fernando Valley in collaboration with 快活林性息鈥檚 Center for Geospatial Science and Technology:听.
She serves on the editorial boards of听Contemporary Jewry听and the听Journal of Jewish Identities听and the board of directors of the Society of Jewish Ethics. She is also co-chair of the Gender Justice Caucus of the Association for Jewish Studies.
Ph.D., Jewish Studies, The University of Chicago, 2010
B.A., English Language and Literature and Women鈥檚 Studies, Harvard University, 1995
Professor of听History
Shira Brown graduated from California State University, Northridge, with a B.A. in Women鈥檚 Studies and English in 2002. Ms. Brown also holds an M.A. in Applied Women鈥檚 Studies, with a concentration in Community Building & Education, from Claremont Graduate University, earned in 2004. Immediately after earning her MA, she began working at the Institute for Multicultural Counseling & Education Services, Inc. (IMCES), where she became a Certified Domestic Violence Advocate and Program Coordinator for a CalWorks Domestic Violence program working one-on-one with survivors of domestic violence to provide access to community resources.
Since August 2011, she has served as the Staff Director for 快活林性息's Women's Research and Resource Center. She has been teaching in the 快活林性息 Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies department since Spring 2006.
Dr. Dorothy Clark is a professor of English. She earned both her undergraduate and doctoral degrees at UCLA and received an M.A. in English and a secondary English Credential from 快活林性息.听 Dr. Clark has been teaching as full-time faculty at 快活林性息 since 2001.听
Teaching
Her interests and courses include Children鈥檚 Literature, Yeats, interdisciplinary courses on good and evil, and the Holocaust with a focus on issues of memory and representation. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Dr. Clark has been a board member of the 1939 Society (the largest Holocaust survivor organization in the U.S.) for over a decade. She helped to initiate the Jewish Studies Program鈥檚 trips to Poland, leading the first trip in conjunction with Loyola Marymount University in 2010.
Prof. Clark has taught classes on the Holocaust and American Culture and the Rhetoric of Memory, focusing on the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide.
Current Research Interests
Holocaust education and preserving an 鈥渁uthenticity of memory鈥�; children鈥檚 literature and new media; representations of good and evil in popular culture.
Recent Selected Publications:
- Co-editor,听Frontiers in American Children鈥檚 Literature. Accepted for publication by Cambridge Scholars Press, January 2014.
- "Healing Shattered Worlds: The Unforeseen Effects of a Second Generation Daughter's Return to Her Parents' Polish Village."听Tikkun Magazine, Tikkun Daily,听December 2011.
- 鈥淗yperread: Repurposing Children鈥檚 Literature and Digital Storytelling.鈥澨�Postmodern Reinterpretations of Fairy Tales. How Applying New Methods Generates New Meanings.听听Ed. Anna K茅rchy.听 The Edwin Mellen Press, 2011.
- 鈥淏eing鈥檚 Wound: Evil and Explanation 颈苍听The Killer Inside Me,鈥澨�颈苍听the Enigma of Good and Evil:听The Moral Sentiment in Literature,听edited by A. Tymieniecka,听Analecta Husserliana听Book Series 85, The Netherlands: Springer Publications,听 December 2005.
Memberships:
- Member of the Editorial Board (Polish Peer Reviewed Journal):听听A/R/T Journal: Analyses/Rereading/Theories: A Journal Devoted to Literature, Film and Theatre
- Modern Language Association (MLA)
- Children鈥檚 Literature Association (ChLA)
- American Literature Association (ALA)
- Children鈥檚 Literature Society, American Literature Association
Associate Professor of Journalism
听Lecturer in Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, History
Lecturer in English
English, with an emphasis on American literature and sub-specialties in Jewish American literature, African American literature, the novel, and the 20th and 21st centuries.
Education
- Ph.D, English, Claremont Graduate University, 2005
- 顿颈蝉蝉别谤迟补迟颈辞苍:听听My Story, Your Story, Our Story--Whose Story?听"Storying" the Holocaust and Confronting Questions听of Narrative Authority and Authenticity听through Art Spiegelman's MAUS: A Survivor's Tale
- M.A., English, California State University, Northridge, 1992
- 罢丑别蝉颈蝉:听Jewish Dreams/American Dreams: Ethnic Absence and Presence in Four Jewish American Texts
- B.A.,听 English, University of California, Berkeley, 1986
- 鈥嫲粘蟊鸩蹙辈�:听Humor and Emily Dickinson: An Unexpected Acquaintance
鈥�Teaching
I teach English, usually American literature, at 快活林性息, and am also a faculty member in the Liberal Studies Online Degree Completion Program. In addition to teaching, I听assess 快活林性息's Upper Division Writing Exams (UDWPE) and work听actively with the Affordable Learning $olutions (AL$) team to make my courses zero-cost with regard to textbooks
Scholarship
At present, most of my research and writing involves both Jewish and African American performance.听The idea of performance is a fascinating and a timely one in a current social context in which the borders of ethnic and racial identification are often blurred, both intracommunally and from without.
Publications
Complicating听Constructions: Race, Ethnicity, and Hybridity in American Texts, co-edited with David S. Goldstein, Ph.D., of the University of Washington, published June 2007 by the University of Washington Press
Review of听Weequahic鈥檚 Gentle Giant, by Robert Masin,听Philip Roth Studies,听Fall 2010
Select Papers Presented
鈥淪hifting Borders/Shifting Jews:听In Literature and in Life, 鈥楤ig J鈥檚,鈥� 鈥楲ittle j鈥檚 and the Farblunget Parameters of Jewish Performance,鈥� presented at the conference of the Western Jewish Studies Association (WJSA), Palm Desert, CA, May 2019
鈥�Sorry to Bother You, and听Welcome to Braggsville--but Now听Get Out! In Underground/Underskin Racial Performance, Will the 鈥淩eal鈥� Black Man Please Stand Up?,鈥� presented at the conference of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS), Cincinnati, Ohio, March 2019
鈥淧op Goes the Professor: Brands, Stands and Reprimands in the Teaching of Jewish American Texts,鈥� presented at the conference of the Western Jewish Studies Association (WJSA), Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, March 2017
鈥淣u? THIS Is Where We鈥檙e Going? Moving the Holocaust from the Sacred to the Profane in Melvin Jules Bukiet鈥檚After听and Tova Reich鈥檚听My Holocaust,鈥� presented at the conference of the Society for the Study of Jewish American and Holocaust Literature (JAHLIT), Salt Lake City, Utah, September 2009.
Lecturer in Jewish Studies and Recreation and Tourism Management
As a part-time instructor in both the Recreation and Tourism Management Department and the Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program, Ms. Wilsey teaches outdoor education and environmental sustainability. She also teaches Environmental Judaism which is an examination of teachings on the natural environment found in Jewish literature and oral teachings, with an emphasis on values and practices related to respect for natural life and environmental conservation. It is her goal to bridge the growing gap between students and their natural environment with hopes of a more sustainable future.