2002, Harvard University, Center for Jewish Studies, Harry Starr Fellow and Visiting Scholar  

1999-2000, Columbia University, Columbia College, Preceptor of "Contemporary Civilization" 

Fall, 1998, Fordham University, Department of History, Adjunct Instructor, "Introduction to the Middle Ages"          

PUBLICATIONS

Book:

Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland: A Beleaguered Church in the Post-Reformation Era (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Articles:

"Negotiating the internal and the external, or on the contextualization of pre-modern Ashkenazi Jewry," a review essay on Joseph M. Davis, Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller: Portrait of a Seventeenth-Century Rabbi in Jewish History 21 no. (2007): 217-232

With Edward Fram, "Apostasy, Fraud and the Beginnings of Hebrew Printing in Cracow," AJS Review 30 no. 1 (2006): 31-66

 "The Legend of Ger Zedek (Righteous Convert) of Wilno as Polemic and Reassurance," AJS Review 29 no. 2 (2005): 237-263

With Edward Fram, "Matai nosad ha-defus  ha-`ivri be-Qraqov?" [Hebrew: When Did Hebrew Printing Begin in Cracow?], Gal-`Ed 20 (2005): 144-149

"Kilka uwag na temat podziałów społecznych i religijnych pomiędzy Żydami i Chrześcijanami we wschodnich miastach dawnej Rzeczpospolitej" [Polish: Some Remarks on the Social and Religious Divisions between Jews and Christians in Eastern Towns of Premodern Poland], Kwartalnik Historii Żydów [Quarterly of Jewish History, Warsaw, Poland] 207 no. 3 (September, 2003): 327-336

"Jewish Conversions to Catholicism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Jewish History 17 no. 3 (2003): 257-283

"Lost in Translation: The London Missionary Society and the Nineteenth Century Translation of the Pentateuch" in Biblical Translations in Context, ed. Frederick Knobloch (College Park: University of Maryland Press, 2002): 145-154

"Catholic Reform" in History of the Modern World  (Tarrytown: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1999),  vol. 2: Religion and Change in Europe

"Przemoc w stosunku do kobiet w Biblii hebrajskiej" [Polish: Violence against Women in the Hebrew Bible], Pełnym głosem (With Full Voice) 4 (1996): 71-88. Also translated into Slovak, "Násilie páchané na ženách v Biblii," Aspekt 2 (1997): 91-97.

Articles published regularly in Polish/Yiddish magazine Dos Yidishe Vort (1991-1993).

ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES

The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe:  articles: "Ger Zedek," "Katarzyna Malcherowa Weigel," "The Helicz Family," "The Ezofowicz Family," "Conversions," "Judaizers." (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).

Article on the “Ritual Murder Accusation” for The Cambridge Dictionary of Jewish Religion, History, and Culture edited by Judith Baskin (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)

SCHOLARSHIP IN PRESS

With Debra Kaplan (Yeshiva University), "Out of the (Historiographic) Ghetto: Jews and the Reformation" (Sixteenth Century Journal, in press) 

Crime and Sacred Spaces in Early Modern Poland," a chapter in a book Religion - Symbol -  Communication: The Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania in the Early Modern Period, ed. Yvonne Kleimann (Simon Dubnow Institute: Leipzig, Germany)

Coedited with Adam Teller, Polin: Social and Cultural Boundaries in Pre-modern Poland, vol. 22, (Oxford:  Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, scheduled to appear in 2009)

"'There Should Be No Love between Us and Them': Social Life and the Bounds of Jewish and Canon Law in Early Modern Poland," an article to be published in Polin: Social and Cultural Boundaries in Pre-modern Poland, vol. 22 (Oxford: Littmann Library of Jewish Civilization, forthcoming in 2009)

CURRENT PROJECTS

A book project on Jewish-Christian Relations and Crime in Early Modern Poland tentatively titled "The Politics of Sacrilege: Jews, Christians, and Crime in Early Modern Poland."

A book and translation project, based on a number of early modern Italian editions of a manual for Jewish women, on how to perform "women's commandments," will explore the transmission and translation of cultural values from early modern eastern Europe to Italy.

"

BOOK REVIEWS

Edward Fram, My Dear Daughter: Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteenth-Century Poland (Hebrew Union College Press, 2007); reviewed for Canadian American Slavic Studies (in press)

Kenneth Austin, From Judaism to Calvinism: The Life and Writings of Immanuel Tremellius (c. 1510-1580) (Ashgate, 2007); reviewed for The American Historical Review (in press)

Dean Phillip Bell and Stephen Burnett, eds., Jews, Judaism, and the Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Germany (Brill, 2006); reviewed for H-Net: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=289371209479923

Dror Ze’evi, Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in Ottoman Middle East, 1500-1900 (University of California Press, 2006); reviewed for Sixteenth Century Journal (in press)

J.L. Vives, De officio mariti, Introduction, Critical Edition, Translation and Notes, Edited by C. Fantazzi and C. Matheeussen. Translated by C. Fantazzi (Brill, 2006); reviewed for The Sixteenth Century Journal (in press)

Dean Phillip Bell, Jews in the Early Modern World (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008); reviewed for Shofar: Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies), http://www.case.edu/artsci/rosenthal/reviews/Early_Modern.htm

Stephanie Siegmund, The Medici State and the Ghetto of Florence (Stanford, 2006); reviewed for The Sixteenth Century Journal, 2007.

Grants: 

2008, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University, Summer Exploratory Workshop Grant in support of an interdisciplinary workshop on “Reading across Cultures: Jewish Book and Its Readers in the Early Modern Period” to be held at the Radcliffe Institute in the Summer of 2009.

2006, Wesleyan University, Center for Faculty Development grant for a joint project with Prof. Adam Teller "Polin: Borders and Boundaries in Jewish History in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania" and for the Early Modern Workshop

2006, Yeshiva University and University of Maryland, in support of the Early Modern Workshop to be held at Wesleyan University, August 20-22, 2006 

2006, Wesleyan University, Seed Grant in support of the Early Modern Workshop to be held at Wesleyan University, August 20-22, 2006 

2005-6, Wesleyan University, Project Grant 

2005, Wesleyan University, The Snowdon Fund Grant to support the conference "Women, Bodies, and Rituals" around an exhibition by an Israel artist Hagit Molgan in January 2006

2004, Wesleyan University, Mellon Center for Faculty Development grant for a joint project with Prof. Edward Fram of Ben-Gurion University: "Apostasy, Fraud and the Beginning of Hebrew Printing in Cracow"

2003, Mellon Workshop Grant in support of an international faculty workshop on early modern Jewish history held at Wesleyan University, August 23-26, 2004

2002-3, Wesleyan University, Project Grant

2001-2, Wesleyan University,Meigs Fund grant in support of research on "Crime and Punishment: Jewish-Christian Relations and Criminal Justice in Early Modern Poland"

PAPERS (Conference and Invited Talks)

2008, Harvard University, Center for Jewish Studies and the Humanities Center, “Sacrilege and Host Desecrations: Politics and Power in Early Modern Poland,” Leon I Mirell Lecture 

2008, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, “Sacrilege”: Jews, Crime, and Religious Boundaries in Early Modern Poland

2007, Center for Jewish History, “The Marketplace in History: Jews and Christians, and the Underworld”  

2007, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, “Tortured Witnesses:  Judicial Violence and Justice in Early Modern Poland”

2007, University of Maryland (College Park), "Material Possessions and Religious Boundaries in Early Modern Poland" as part of the Early Modern Workshop (www.earlymodern.org) 

2007, Central European University, "Transnationalism and Jewish History:  Premodern Cosmopolitans from Below" 

2006, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, "Of Crime, Bleeding Hosts, and Historical Periodization"

2005, University of Kansas, The Hall Center for the Humanities, "Social Life and the Bounds of Jewish and Canon Law in Early Modern Poland" 

2005, World Congress of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, Israel), "Jewish Law and Canon Law: Dealing with the Other" 

2005, University of Maryland (College Park), "Law, Boundaries, and City Life in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania" as part of the Early Modern Workshop (www.earlymodern.org) 

2005, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, "Did the Counter Reformation Triumph in Poland? Methodological Remarks" [a talk distinct from similarly titled talks listed below] 

2005, Association for Jewish Studies, "Studying Early Modern Jewish History"  

2004, Wesleyan University, respondent to Daniel Boyarin in a symposium "Borders of Jewish and Christian Identity from Antiquity till Today"  

2004, Wesleyan University, "Anti-Jewish Accusations in Poland: A Medieval or Early Modern Phenomenon?" as part of the Early Modern Workshop (www.earlymodern.org) 

2004, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, "Did the Counter Reformation Triumph in Poland?"

2004, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, "Change of Attitudes toward Proselytes: The Tale of Ger Zedek of Wilno" (Early Modern Study Group). Also presented at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel in April 2004 and an early version "The Eighteenth-Century Legend of the Righteous Convert to Judaism [Ger Zedek] in Poland and Its Historical Context," presented at the University of Groningen, Holland in 2003 at an International Conference "Cultures of Conversion: Paradigms, Poetics and Politics" 

2003, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, "Law, Boundaries and Mutual Attitudes: Churchmen, Rabbis and the People in Early Modern Poland"

2002, Association for Jewish Studies, "Crossing the Social and Religious Boundaries: Christian Converts to Judaism in Early Modern Poland"  

2002, German Historical Institute (Warsaw, Poland), "Kilka uwag na temat podziałów społecznych i religijnych pomiędzy Żydami i Chrześcijanami we wschodnich miastach dawnej Rzeczpospolitej" [Reconsidering Social and Religious Boundaries between Jews and Christians in the Eastern Territories of Premodern Poland] at an International Conference "Jews and Burghers in the Nobles’ Republic"  

2002, European Association for Jewish Studies, "Jewish Conversions to Catholicism in Early Modern Poland" (Amsterdam). An earlier version presented at Wesleyan University in 2001. 

2002, Harvard University, Center for Jewish Studies, "(Jewish) History from Crime: Beliefs, Boundaries and Power in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania"  

2000, Columbia University, "Medieval Philosophy and the Three Religions: Thomas Aquinas, Al-Ghazali and Maimonides"

1999, Association for Jewish Studies, "The Counter-Image: Attitudes of Polish Jews toward the Catholic Church in Early Modern Poland"  

1999, University of San Francisco, Swig Center for Jewish Studies, "Beyond Adversus Judaeos"

1998, Association for Jewish Studies, "Jews and Others in Polemical and Controversial Literature in Early Modern Poland" 

1998, American Catholic Historical Association, "Jews in the Official Documents of the Catholic Church in Poland (1648-1772)"  

1996, Western Jewish Studies Association, "The Chmielnicki Uprising: Perception of Causality, Kingship and Suffering in the Polish, Ukrainian and Hebrew Chronicles" 

1995, American Catholic Historical Association, "Jews within the Historiography of the Catholic Church in Poland"

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE 

2006-2007, Center for Online Judaic Studies, editor of the early modern section (with Miriam Bodian) 

2004-present, Co-founder, director, and editor of the Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History (www.earlymodern.org)  

2005, Consultant for a BBC documentary Unorthodox Vows on non-Orthodox marriages in Israel, produced/directed by Suzie Brown 

2002, Founder of the New England Regional Faculty Seminar in Jewish Studies  

Peer reviewer for Cambridge University Press, University of Wisconsin Press, and the AJS Review.

UNIVERSITY SERVICE 

Committees: 

2006-2007, Member of the Pedagogical Renewal Committee

2006-2007, Member of the Information Technology Committee for Division II (social sciences) 

2006-2007, Member of the board of Wesleyan University’s Center for Faculty Career Development 

2004-2007, History Department, Honors Committee  

2006, Faculty participant in discussions on open curricula for the Teagle Foundation 

2005-2006, Ad hoc Educational Policy Committee workgroup on Information Literacy capability  

2004-2006, Academic Review Committee, a subcommittee of the Educational Policy Committee 

2004-2006, Faculty Committee on Rights and Responsibilities  

2003-2007, Faculty representative on the Student Judicial Board and Honor Board Panel at the Frosh Orientation, responsible for discussing plagiarism and academic dishonesty from a faculty perspective  

2002-present, History Department, faculty advisor to Historical Narratives, an undergraduate journal published by Wesleyan history majors  

2002-2003, Faculty Mentor in the University Scholarship Program  

2000-present, Member of the Jewish and Israel Studies Certificate Program

Conferences and Talks Organized at Wesleyan University: 

Organized and raised funds for the third annual session of the "Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History" entitled "Gender, Family, and Social Structures" (August 2006) 

Conceived, raised funds, and organized the conference "Women, Bodies, and Rituals" to accompany an exhibition by an Israeli artist Hagit Molgan at the Zilkha Gallery (January 29, 2006); the event was covered by the Hartford Courant, January 27, 2006 and the Chicago Tribune, February 8, 2006. 

Conceived, raised funds, and organized a Mellon-funded international faculty workshop "Early Modern Jewries: Paradigms of Change" in August 2004 

"Studying Religion," Snowden Lecture Series: Advising Committee for History and Jewish Studies (2001-2002)

Brought the following speakers to campus (independent of the Early Modern Workshop):