Occupation
Assistant Professor
Contact
Dept of Middle Eastern & Islamic studies
Shalem College
ha-‘Asqan 3
Jerusalem
9378010
Israel
ABOUT
D Gershon Lewental is a cultural historian of the Middle East, focusing on how societies use religion, memory, and conflict to define and maintain their identities. He has been a visiting assistant professor in the Departments of History and International & Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma since 2012. He earned his bachelor of arts degree (magna cum laude) from Cornell University and his doctorate in Middle Eastern history from Brandeis University. His dissertation, on the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah during the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran and the changing perceptions of the engagement through time, received the Foundation of Iranian Studies Best Dissertation Award and the Brandeis University Glatzer Dissertation Prize. His fields of specialisation include early Islamic history and historiography, Iranian history, the Baha’i faith, and Israeli society.
Discipline
History
Sub Areas
Iranian Studies
Islamic Studies
7th-13th Centuries
Historiography
Israel Studies
Geographic Areas of Interest
Iran
Israel
Ottoman Empire
Iraq
Islamic World
Specialties
Nationalism And Religious Identity
Islamic Historiography
Memory And Identity Studies
Languages
Arabic (advanced)
French (advanced)
Hebrew (native)
Persian (advanced)
Russian (intermediate)
Tajik (advanced)
Education
PhD
| 2011
| Near Eastern Studies
| Brandeis University
MA
| 2005
| Near Eastern Studies
| Brandeis University
BA
| 2003
| Near Eastern Studies
| Cornell University
Abstracts
Hero and Trickster in early Islamic historiography: The Case of the Qādisiyyah narratives
From Israelites to Muslims: Biblical paradigms in the Futūḥ literature
Call-and-response battles in Syria and Iraq: The Literary construction of Islamic collective memory
