Hebrew and German literature
Jewish Literary and Cultural History
Modernism
Migration Studies
Theater and Voice Studies
Current Projects
My current research, “Voice and Migration in Jewish Women’s Writing”, investigates the role of the performed voice and multilingual expression in the literary works of Jewish women writers who experienced migration and dislocation. I focus on four Jewish women immigrants—Leah Goldberg, Mascha Kaléko, Else Lasker-Schüler, and Jacqueline Kahanov—whose writings and performative practices demonstrate the crossing of geospatial, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. By exploring the intersection of their recorded performances and written texts, this study will reveal how these women revolutionized Jewish public oral spheres, offering new insights into the evolving dynamics between oral and written traditions in Jewish literature and cultural belonging.
Curriculum Vitae
Fellowships and Grants
2024 The Martin Buber Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Fellowship, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2024-2026 The Dan David Society of Fellows, Tel Aviv University (declined).
2021-2022 The Einstein Stiftung Postdoctoral Fellowship.
2021-2022 Israeli Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, Tel Aviv University.
2020-2021 Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Postdoctoral Fellowship, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2020-2022 Returning Scientist Grant, Ministry of Aliya and Integration, The State of Israel.
2019-2020 University of Chicago Doctoral Studies Fellowship in the Humanities.
2018-2019 UC-Mellon Foundation Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
2018-2019 Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship (declined).
2013-2018 University of Chicago Doctoral Studies Fellowship in the Humanities.
Prizes
2022 The Leo Baeck Prize for Dissertation in the History and Culture of German Jewry.
2019 GRAD Global Impact Award, The University of Chicago (declined).
2019 Graduate Student Lectureship Award, Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies, The University of Chicago.
2012 Dov Sadan Foundation Award for MA Thesis, Tel Aviv University.
2012 Academic Excellence Award, Heksherim Institute and the Department of Hebrew Literature, Ben Gurion University.
Education
2015-2020 PhD, Comparative Literature, University of Chicago.
2013-2015 MA, Comparative Literature, University of Chicago.
2010-2014 MA, Hebrew Literature, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
2003-2006 BA, Comparative Literature and Theater Arts, Tel Aviv University.
Publications
Books
Writers at the Threshold: Hebrew, German, and the Paradox of Home (manuscript in preparation).
Edited books
Eds. Michal Peles-Almagor, Shimon Adaf and Tali Latowicki, Real: Creative Writing Program Anthology, Be’er Sheba: Hekshrim – The Research Institute for Jewish and Israeli Literature and Culture; Ben Gurion University – Hebrew Literature Department, 2013. [Hebrew].
Chapters in books
Peles-Almagor, Michal. “The Letter in Kafka’s ‘The Judgement’,” in: Articles Submitted to Dan Miron at the Celebration of his 90th Birthday (Hebrew, forthcoming).
Peer-reviewed articles
Peles-Almagor, Michal. “’I Seek the Stars in the Daylight’: Citation, Recitation, and Leah Goldberg’s Hidden German Poem.” Naharaim 17.1 (2023)
Peles-Almagor, Michal, Achinoam Aldouby and Chiara Renzo, “Theater in Jewish DPs Camps in Italy: A Stage for Political and Ideological Debate on Aliya, Zionism, and Jewish Identity.” Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History 21.1 (2022).
Peles-Almagor, Michal. “’Here’ is a Different Place: Lieland and Hebrew Literary Space.” BGU Review, A Journal of Israeli Culture 5 (2018).
Articles
Peles Almagor, Michal. “Beyt Bialik: A Guided Tour,” Moznaim 97:2, Antarctica (2023), 96-99.
Peles-Alamgor, Michal. “I Admit, You Can Say I Abandoned You Twice” Ha’aretz, Tarbut Ve-Sifrut, April 26, 2023. [Hebrew]
Peles-Almagor, Michal. “On Yael Ne’eman’s Auto/Biographical Novel,” Odot: Ktav ‘et lemasot ubikoret sifrut 12 (2019), online journal. [Hebrew].
Peles-Almagor, Michal. “Between Hope and the Abyss: Identity Crisis and Void in Nissim Aloni’s The American Princess.” Hateatron 34 (2012): 99-106. [Hebrew].
Book Reviews
Peles-Almagor, Michal, A Review on Women Writing Jewish Modernity, 1919-1939 by Allison Schachter, Modernism/Modernity (November 2023).
Peles-Almagor, Michal. “At the Crossroad,” A Review of Johnathan Franzen’s Crossroads, Panas: Mosaf lebikoret sifrut.
Translations
Adi Keissar, “I am the Mizrachit,” translated from Hebrew into English by Michal Peles-Almagor, 2022.
Diti Ronen, [untitled poem], translated from Hebrew into English by Michal Peles-Almagor, included in the poetry-video Morning Reflections directed by Shiry Price, 2021.
Lior Almagor, Ketchup or Mustard (one-act play), translated from Hebrew into English by Michal Peles-Almagor, performed at the Strawberry One Act Festival, The Riant Theatre, NYC, 2016.
Harold Pinter, “Night” (one-act play), translated from English into Hebrew by Michal Peles-Almagor in: Memory Plays: Four Plays and Poems, Tel Aviv: Resling 2009.
Presentations
Conference Organized
2023 Co-organizer (with Na’ama Rokem, Haim Weiss, and Shai Ginsburg), Voice, University of Chicago.
2021 Co-organizer (with Haim Weiss and Irit Natar), The Unseen Agnon, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
2018 Co-organizer (with Matthew Johnson), Linguistic Homelands: Hebrew, Yiddish German, University of Chicago.
2013 Organizer, Text, World, Stage, A Conference in Honor of Professor Zahava Caspi, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Panel Organized
2024 Erich Kästner’s Forgotten Poetry, A Conference in the Memory of Erich Kästner, Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, Mishkanot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem.
2023 Between Written and Oral Traditions: Revealing the Literary Tradition of the Spoken Voice, Co-organizer (with Gilad Shenhav), The Association of Comparative Literature Conference (ACLA), Chicago.
2022 Co-organizer (with Joshua Shelly), German Literature and the Zionist Project, The Annual Conference for Germanic Studies: Language, Culture, Society, Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem.
2020 Co-organizer (with Profs. Jan Kühne and Na’ama Rokem), German-Hebrew Studies Seminar, Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Washington, DC.
2018 From Buczacz to Berlin: S.Y Agnon and the Diasporic Imagination, Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Boston.
Paper Presented
2024 Erich Kästner’s Forgotten Poetry, A Conference in the Memory of Erich Kästner, Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, Mishkanot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem.
2023 “Agnon’s Wandering Library: Hebrew, German, and Welitliteratur, The Annual Conference for Germanic Studies, Leo Baeck Institute, Tel Aviv University.
2023 “The Speaking Memoir: Walter Benjamin’s Linguistic Homelands,” The Association of Comparative Literature Conference (ACLA), Chicago.
2022 “Speaking Letters: Hermeneutics and the German-Hebrew Exchange in Dan Pagis’ Writing,” The World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.
2022 "’I Write This Like Vakhtangov Directed Turandot!’: Prosaic Staging as Critique in Leah Goldberg’s Hebrew Novel,” The Annual Conference for Germanic Studies, Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem.
2021 “Macaronic Queerness Among Hebrew, German, and Yiddish: Toward an Aesthetic of Collision in David Vogel’s Prose Fiction”, Humboldt Universität, Berlin.
2021 “From Unseen to Seen: The Question of Germany in Agnon Scholarship,” The Annual Agnon Conference, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva.
2020 “Berlin, Multilingualism, and the Hebrew Novel,” German-Hebrew Studies Seminar, Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Washington.
2020 “Leah Goldberg’s Feuilleton,” Feuilletons between Politics and Culture Seminar, Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Washington.
2019 “Leah Goldberg’s Jewish Berlin,” Leo Baeck Summer University, Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien, Humboldt Universität, Berlin.