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In pictures: how ancient rabbis upend “traditional” ideas of reproduction, gender, and humanity

Nov 16 2023
Below, author Rafael Rachel Neis provides a comic on When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species, a provocative and trailblazing work in the study of rabbinic literature. Through an original analysis of creaturely generation and species classification by late anci
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How Christians Have Used Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim Rhetoric for Their Own Ends

Nov 18 2022
by David M. Freidenreich, author of Jewish Muslims: How Christians Imagined Islam as the EnemyAntisemitism is becoming increasingly overt—and so too is its close relative, anti-Judaism. To respond and resist effectively, we need to recognize the differences between these two forms of rhetoric, w
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Demons in the Talmud – and on the Campaign Trail

Nov 17 2022
By Sara Ronis, author of Demons in the Details: Demonic Discourse and Rabbinic Culture in Late Antique BabyloniaIn the months leading up to this year’s midterm elections, a number of Republicans claimed that their Democratic opponents were working with demons or with the devil himself. This tact
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Teaching the Medieval through The Sea in the Middle

Aug 22 2022
By Brian Catlos, co-author of The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650–1650If Medieval Studies, as some say, has a “whiteness problem,” Mediterranean Studies does not. Recentering the narrative of the pre-Modern West on the region of the sea and the lands that surround it better refle
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Editor Spotlight: Meet our Premodern World History Editor, Eric Schmidt

Apr 12 2021
This post is part of our Editor Spotlight Series.For this year’s virtual American Historical Association conference, we connected with UC Press Premodern World History Senior Editor Eric Schmidt to talk about our program and what new projects he’s most excited about. Eric also shares how he
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Author Jordan D. Rosenblum Shares the Secret to Writing an Engaging Coursebook

Nov 23 2020
by Jordan D. Rosenblum, author of Rabbinic Drinking: What Beverages Teach Us About Rabbinic LiteratureA good textbook can be dry—so long as it’s dry like a nice red wine and not dry like a boring recitation of tax codes. With this caveat in mind, I endeavored to write the former, even when (admi
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