Joshua Nathaniel Aaron Lambert
Address and phone number upon request
josh.lambert@nyu.edu
EMPLOYMENT
Dorot Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow
of Hebrew and Judaic Studies.
September 2009-.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in English Language and
Literature.
Dissertation: Unclean Lips:
Obscenity and Jews in American Literature. Committee: Anita Norich and Jonathan Freedman (co-chairs), Deborah Dash
Moore, Julian Levinson, June Howard. Summer coursework at the
Uriel Weinreich Program in
Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture at NYU (2008, 2005).
A.B. in English, magna cum
laude.
BOOK
American Jewish Fiction: A JPS Guide.
REFEREED PUBLICATIONS
"American Shmutz: Isaac Goldberg and the Idea of Obscene
Yiddish." Lara Rabinovitch, Hannah Pressman, and
Shiri Goren, eds., Choosing
Yiddish: Studies in Yiddish Literature, Culture, and History (
"'Wait for the
Next Pictures': Intertextuality and Cliffhanger
Continuity in Cinema and Comic Strips, 1910-1914." Cinema Journal 48:2 (Winter 2009).
"'Wanna
Watch the Grown-Ups Doin' Dirty Things?':
Jewish Sexuality and the Early Graphic Novel." Ranen
Omer-Sherman and Samantha Baskind, eds. The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches.
CONFERENCE PAPERS & ACADEMIC
TALKS
Co-organizer and panelist,
"Does the English Department Have a Jewish Problem?" Special session. MLA.
"Sex After
"Unclean Lips: 'Dirty
Words,' Modernism, and Henry Roth's Call It Sleep," Center for
Jewish History.
"How the Dirty Jew Became a
Cultural Hero." Jewish Cultural Studies panel on
"Reevaluating Jewish Stereotypes." MLA.
"'Wait for the Next
Pictures': Intertextuality and Cliffhanger Continuity
in Film and Comic Strips, 1910-1914." Comics as a Nexus
of Culture. Pfalzakademie,
"Reading Portnoy Backwards: The Shiksa
as Allegory in Roth's Comic Masterpiece." American Literature Association. Boston, May 2005.
TEACHING
Assistant Professor/Faculty
Fellow,
V78.0133: Topics
in Criticism: Holocaust Literature (S 2010).
V78.0625: Jewish American Novel (S 2010).
Graduate Student Instructor,
English 125: College Writing: Censorship & Expression
(F 2007, W 2008).
English 432: The Modern American Novel (W 2006), Prof.
Joshua Miller.
English 367: Shakespeare's Plays (F 2005), Prof. Ralph
Williams.
COMMUNITY TALKS &
PRESENTATIONS
"American
Jewish Fiction." Jewish
"Trouble at
"American
Jewish Fiction." Congregation Sukkat
Shalom,
"The Best
of Jewish Fiction." Panel with novelists Betsy Carter and Austin Ratner. Merage Jewish
Community Center,
"American
Jewish Fiction." Jewish Federation of
"The Uses
of American Jewish Fiction." Kehillat
Panel with Sana Krasikov, author of One
More Year.
Westhampton Synagogue,
"Unclean
Lips: Obscenity and Jews in North American Literature," Congregation Beth Elohim.
"On Philip
Roth's American Pastoral."
"On Sholem Aleichem's Tevye the Dairyman."
LITERARY CRITICISM & ARTS
JOURNALISM
"On the
Bookshelf: Assimilation and Anxiety, from Paris to the Pampas."
Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: 'Tis the Season." Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Pluralists, Pragmatists, and Polemicists." Tablet,
"From the
Academy: Mysticism and Philosophy." Interview
with Elliot Wolfson. MyJewishLearning.com,
"On the
Bookshelf: Prayer, Poetry, and Pop." Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Integration, Emancipation, and a Defense of Our Four-Legged Friends."
Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Immigrants and Émigrés." Tablet,
"From the
Academy: Sociology." Interview with Samuel Heilman. MyJewishLearning.com,
"On the
Bookshelf: New Books on Bodies Visible and Invisible." Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Headliners and Sidemen." Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: The Latest in Holocaust and Lebowski
Scholarship." Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Compulsions, Subversions, and a TV Tell-All." Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Far-flung Rites and Gustatory Delights." Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Armed Struggles, Exit Strategies, Cats, and Lullabies."
Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Wisecrackers, Retailers, and Maimonideans."
Tablet,
"From the
Academy: Law." Interview with Suzanne Last
Stone. MyJewishLearning.com,
"On the
Bookshelf: Jewish Liberalism, Spiritual Boredom, and Crock-Pot Miracles."
Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Jews and Germans, Trotsky, Clarice Lispector."
Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Going Nuts, Draft Dodging and Louis Brandeis." Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Madoff, Interfaith Dialogue, British Jews,
and More." Tablet,
"A Novel God:
Looking at American Jewish Fiction." CJ: Voices of
Conservative/Masorti Judaism, Fall 2009.
"On the
Bookshelf: Virtuous Poles, an X-Men Villain, Rashi's
Daughters, and YA Classics." Tablet,
"From the
Academy: Musicology." Interview with
"On the
Bookshelf: Black-Jewish Harmony, Sitting Shiva, Bat Mitzvah Prep, and More."
Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Crusaders, Myths, Thrillers, and More." Tablet,
"Mommies
Dearest" (cowritten with Sara
Kippur). On
Daniel Burman's play Las Llaves
de Abajo. Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: On Writing in Hebrew, Primo Levi, and Endless Love."
Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: What Makes a Jew: Family? Community? Books?" Tablet,
"From the
Academy: Art History." Interview with
Samantha Baskind. MyJewishLearning.com,
"On the
Bookshelf: Diasporas, Tomatoes, Interstellar Zionists, and More."
Tablet,
"On the
Bookshelf: Sex, White Supremacists, Ramen Noodles, and More." Tablet,
"What Makes a Book Jewish?"
Jewish Book World, June 2009.
"On the
Bookshelf: Soloveitchik, Céline,
Salinger, and More." Tablet,
"From the
Academy: Sephardic Studies." Interview with
Sarah Abrevaya Stein. MyJewishLearning.com,
"Lost Classics
on the Cheap." JBooks.com, April 2009.
"Judging a
Book by More than Its Cover: Charting the Landscape of
American Jewish Literature." MyJewishLearning.com, March
2009.
"Ruth Wisse:
Generous Mentor, Worthy Adversary." The Forward,
"Big Bang." On Sam Astrachan's
An End to Dying. Nextbook.org,
"Breakdowns by Art Spiegelman." The Jewish
Reader. January, 2009.
"Comeback Kid." On Ludwig Lewisohn's
The
"Hack Job." On the
adaptation of Philip Roth's "The Contest for Aaron Gold" by Alfred
Hitchcock Presents. Nextbook.org,
"A Literary History of the Dirty Jew." JBooks.com,
"Etgar Keret's Bargain." On Keret's
The Girl on the Fridge. JBooks.com,
"Speak No Evil, Little Dudes." On the Chofetz Chaim Foundation's The
Word-Wise Adventures of Yisrael and Meir. JBooks.com,
"Storm Warning." On John Killens'
And Then We Heard the Thunder. Nextbook.org,
"Everyday Jews by Yehoshue Perle." The Jewish
Reader. December, 2007.
"One Man's
Kosher Is Another Man's Treif." Interfaithfamily.com,
"The Anarchist's Comic Book." On
"Regatta Land." On Myron S. Kaufmann's Remember
Me to God. Nextbook.org,
"The Honest Art of Leonard Michaels." On Leonard Michaels' The Collected Stories. JBooks.com,
"The Art of Disappearing." On Nathan Englander's The Ministry of Special Cases. JBooks.com,
"The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon." The Jewish Reader, May,
2007.
"The Oy of Sex." Review of Al Goldstein's I,
Goldstein. JBooks.com, January, 2007.
"Reader's Guide: Everyman, by Philip Roth."
Jewish Literary Supplement, Fall 2006.
"A Jew on the
Street." On Sholem Asch's
"From Russia with Lox." Review of Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan
and Lara Vapnyar's Memoirs of a Muse. The Globe and Mail,
"The True Name
of Gary." Interview with Gary Shteyngart. JBooks.com, May, 2006.
"Those Ukraine Girls." On The Real World:
"The Sacred
and the Profane." Interview with Dara Horn. The Forward,
"Plot tanks as characters speak in foreign idioms."
Review of Zadie Smith's On
Beauty. National Post,
"Tearing Down Walls." Review of Edeet Ravel's A Wall of Light. The Globe and Mail,
"Yo Mameloshn." Review of Michael Wex's Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in
All Its Moods. JBooks.com, September, 2005.
"'Canker in
the Soul' That Ate Away at Roth's Writing." Review of Steven Kellman's Redemption: The Life of Henry Roth. The
San Francisco Chronicle,
"Canada's
Mordecai Richler and Zionism: 'A Man Without Land is Nobody.'" Midstream
51:4 (July/August 2005): 29-32.
"Another Slight Chapter in the Story of Exile." On Stephen Marche's
Raymond + Hannah: A Love Story. JBooks.com,
"A Late
Pioneer Is Still Pushing Boundaries." Review of Will Eisner's The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the
Elders of
"What Is
Jewish Humor?" MyJewishLearning.com, March, 2005.
"The World According to Oskar." Review of Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud
and Incredibly Close. The National Post,
"The Next War." On English as a Jewish language. Nextbook.org,
"Tackling
Questions of Orthodox Feminism." Review of Ruchama King's Seven Blessings. Midstream,
vol. 51, no. 1 (January/February 2005): 43-44.
"Chabon Returns,
Still Crusading for Fun in Literature." Review of Michael Chabon's The Final
Solution. The Forward,
"Telling it like it is by telling it
like it ain't." Review of Philip
Roth's The Plot Against
"A Boatload of Languor and Dreaminess." On Nessa Rapoport's House on the
River: A Summer Journey. The Forward,
"A Fabulous, Bald Jew." On Isaac Bashevis Singer's Collected Stories. JBooks.com,
July 2004.
"'The Toughest Kid
in Hebrew School.'" Review of David Bezmozgis's Natasha and Other Stories. The Globe
and Mail,
"Up and Down, Over and Out." On Naama
Goldstein's The Place Will Comfort You. The Forward,
"Couple Finds Room for Love, Rebellion in Orthodox Judaism."
Review of Tova Mirvis's The
Outside World. The San Francisco Chronicle,
"Desperately Lost Americans Find Themselves in Prague."
Review of Aaron Hamburger's The View from
Stalin's Head. The Forward,
"In the Great Masters' Shadows." Review of
Tobias Wolff's Old School. The
"Enough to Make Bugsy Siegel Blush." Interview with
Judd Winnick and review of his comic book, Caper.
The Forward,
"Cantankerous Old Man Discovers Soft
Spot." On Joseph Epstein's Fabulous Small
Jews. The Forward,
"Living on the Edge." On Paul Zakrzewski's Lost Tribe anthology. JBooks.com,
September 2003.
"An Elegant 10/10." On Daniel Stolar's In the Middle of the Night. JBooks.com,
June 2003.
"Divine Inspiration." On Aryeh
Lev Stollman's The
Dialogues of Time and Entropy. New Voices, April 2003.
"The Search for a Great Latin-American Jewish Author." New Voices, March 2003.
"Writing What She Doesn't Know." On Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man. New Voices,
January 2003.
"Plagiarism 101." On Gabriel Brownstein's The
Curious Case of Benjamin Button,
"Zany Post-Soviet Hijinks." On
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS,
Writer's
Seminar on the Jewish People,
Mark Uveleer
Special Dissertation Scholarship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. 2009.
Dr. Sophie Bookhalter
Fellow in Jewish Culture, Center for Jewish History. 2008-2009.
Rackham Humanities
Research candidacy fellowship,
Summer Fellowship (Honorable
mention), Myer and
Marshall
Weinberg Prize for Excellence in Judaic Studies, University of
Van Akin and
Julia Burd Fund for Research in English Award,
University of
Essay Award, Domitor:
International Association for the Study of Early Cinema. 2007.
Graduate Student Seminar, American Academy for Jewish Research. 2007.
Society for Cinema and Media Studies Student Writing Award (2nd
place). 2007.
Berman fellowship,
Hopwood
Award, Novel category,
YIVO Tuition
Scholarship, Uriel Weinreich Program. 2005, 2008.
Frankel
Fellowship in Judaic Studies,
Artist's residency, MacDowell Colony.
March 2004.
Moment
Magazine/Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest (2nd
place). 2003.
Netivot
Fellowship, Harvard Hillel.
2000-2001.
Norman Podhoretz Prize in Jewish Studies,
Edward Eager Prize,
Phi Beta Kappa,
John Harvard
Scholarship,
David Rice Ecker Prize,
Detur Prize,
Review of
manuscripts for Cinema Journal and the Jewish Publication Society,
2009-.
"The Lewisburg Minyan." StoryQuarterly (November 2009).
"Berenstein's Plague." Moment
(August, 2005).
"The Bible Scholar" in B&A New Fiction 22 (Spring
1996).
Editor,
JBooks.com. Jewish Family & Life! Media, 2003-2004.
Editorial Director, Rabbit's Foot
Press.
Contributing
editor, Harvard Lampoon. 1999-2001.