Department of English Literature and Linguistics - Bar Ilan University

Congratulations to our colleague, Dr. Taylor Johnston-Levy, on being awarded the prestigious Alon Scholarship! Each year, the Council for Higher Education awards just 25 Alon Scholarships to outstanding early-career faculty members across the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. This highly competitive award recognizes exceptional academic promise.

Dr. Taylor Johnston-Levy teaches courses on twentieth-century and contemporary American literature and fiction writing. Her book in progress, That Class Which Is Not One: Postmodern Realism and the White Lower Middle Class, is under contract with Oxford University Press. Most recently, she has conducted research on racial affect in African American fiction and on critical pedagogy at Israeli universities. Her Pushcart-nominated fiction can be found in Ninth Letter.

Congratulations, Dr. Taylor Johnston-Levy, on this well-deserved achievement! We wish you continued success in your research and teaching.

Congratulations to our wonderful colleagues on receiving) prestigious grants from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF! 🎉
👏 Dr. Maria Esipova – Speech Acts at the Interfaces
👏 Prof. Yael Greenberg – Norm Sensitivity Beyond Gradable Constructions
👏 Prof. Lior Laks – Diversity in the Adaptation of Loanwords

Receiving an ISF grant is a remarkable achievement, reflecting the originality, significance, and excellence of research. Wishing you all every success with these exciting new projects. 🌟

We are delighted to announce that our Prof Elinor Saiegh- Haddad has been elected an International Fellow of the British Academy. Election to the International Fellowship is the highest honour that the Academy confers on non-UK residents in recognition of scholarly distinction. Kudos on this amazing achievement to Prof. Saiegh-Haddad!

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/profiles/elinor-saiegh-haddad-fba/

Huge congratulations to our Dr. Taylor Johnston-Levy on being recognized as one of Bar-Ilan University's Outstanding Lecturers for 2025–2026 (תשפ"ו)! 🎉👏 It is a privilege to have you as a colleague in the Department of English Literature and Linguistics. Wishing you continued success and many more years of inspiring students! Congratulations! 🌷🎓

PEN America interviewed more than 30 Israeli and Jewish writers and literary professionals, including Deborah Harris and DHA’s client Joanna Chen, in an attempt to gauge the effect the attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza have had on the literary market. The result is an extensive report on the rising hostility and exclusion which are a threat to what PEN America is fundamentally committed to defending: a culture of free expression for all.

Read the full article through the link in the comments below.

This year, 263 new doctoral graduates from across all BIU`s departments were awarded their PhDs. The newly minted doctors ranged in age from 24 to 79: this a wonderful reminder that the pursuit of knowledge has no age limit.

We are especially proud of the three new doctors from our department:
🎓 Dr. Danielle Nagler (supervised by Prof. William Kolbrener)
🎓Dr. Tatiana Verkhovtceva (supervised by Prof. Natalia Meir)
🎓 Dr. Sidney Gordon (supervised by Prof. Natalia Meir)

Congratulations to our newly minted doctors on this remarkable achievement! We wish you continued success in your academic and professional journeys. Congratulations, Doctors! 🎉🎓

If you missed the student awards ceremony for the Shaindy Bar-Ilan, Shaindy Rudoff Creative Writing Graduate Program you can watch it now. Congratulations to the prize winners.
Andrea Moriah Prize in Poetry--Maria Katzendorn
Sandy Nairn Prize for Literary Translation--Rania Hannon
Dave Greber Prize for Social Justice in Literary Nonfiction--
Inbal Baron and Hadar Liberman
Bar Sagi Prize in Fiction--Elena Shakhnovskaya

Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing Graduate Awards Ceremony 2026 Andrea Moriah Prize in Poetry--Maria KatzendornSandy Nairn Prize f...

A symposium featuring Humanities-Based AI Research organized by Dr. Galit Agmon! 🤖📚
Today, researchers from across the Faculty of Humanities came together for the Humanities-Based AI Research Symposium to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping research in linguistics, philosophy, translation, music, literature, and beyond. The symposium featured most interesting talks by faculty members, a keynote lecture, and lively discussions that highlighted the richness of interdisciplinary collaboration.

A special highlight of the event was the poster session, where students from Dr. Galit Agmon's seminar, AI and Language: Can Computers Really Talk? presented their research projects. Their work addressed a wide range of timely topics, including language processing in LLMs, creativity, translation, cultural bias, code-switching, syntax, emotion, and language disorders. The quality, originality, and enthusiasm displayed by the students were truly impressive.

Congratulations to all the presenters and speakers, and special thanks to Dr. Galit Agmon for mentoring the next generation of researchers. We look forward to seeing these exciting projects continue to develop!

Mabrouk to our Prof Elinor Saiegh-Haddad who today received the prestigious Humboldt Research Award which is awarded by the German Humboldt Foundation to distinguished researchers across the world in recognition of their research career and their impact on their field and their contribution to science. The Award ceremony took place in Berlin and was followed by the International conference of the Humboldt Foundation featuring the German minister of science and technology and then by a meeting with the federal German president. We are so proud of Prof. Saiegh-Haddad`s achievements!

Congratulations to the winners of the graduate student writing prizes. Maria Katzendorn, Inbal Baron, Hadar Liberman, Elena Shakhnovskaya, and Rania Hannon