Biography
A social historian, Alon focuses on the construction of modern Identities, sociocultural practices, class identity, and the daily lives of ordinary people. Alon works comparatively with archival and ego-documents, and focuses on disappearing communities. Her early work focused on the Jewish Egyptian Jewry in Egypt and Israel. Currently, she is implementing her expertise to explore the history of the local Jewish communities in central Illinois, gradually dwindling and disappearing. Alon has taught at several of the prominent academic institutions in Israel and has been teaching at UIUC and Hebrew Union College since her move to the U.S. in 2018.
Alon's courses include The Arab-Israeli Conflict; Israeli Television and Cinema; Minorities or Millets: Muslims and others in 19th and 20th Centuries' Middle East; Jewish Middle Eastern Jews in Israel; Jewish Life in Small Mid-West Communities in the U.S.A.; The Modern Middle East since 1914; Modern Egypt since 1914; Jewish History since 1700s: Challenging the Asheknormative Hegemony in Jewish Studies
In addition to her academic career, Alon is and has been a social activist, and dedicated significant parts of her time to community and dialogue building, especially in climates of division and friction.
Research Interests
Local Histories, microhistory, gender, family history, Jewish studies, Israel Studies, Middle Eastern Jewries, Dialogue in the classroom; the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli society
Education
2018 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Department of Middle East Studies, Ph.D.The Jewish Bourgeoisie of Egypt during the First Half of the 20th Century: The Perspectives of Gender and Family Iris Agmon (Advisor BGU), Henriette Dahan Kalev (Advisor BGU)
2012 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Department of Middle East Studies, M.A. (Summa cum Laude); Women, Gender and Family in the Jewish Communities of Cairo and Alexandria, 1930-1956
2007-2009 The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Graduate Program in Gender and Jewish Studies
Grants
Bridges Grant, UIUC-University of Birmingham, UK partnership, Bridging the Lacuna of Local Jewish Histories: Jewish Lives in Small/er Communities
Awards and Honors
2018 The Baron New Voices in Jewish Studies Award, A joint award presented by the program in Jewish Studies at Columbia and Fordham Universities
2018 Research Grant, The Ben Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East
2017 The Jama'a Bilingual Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Middle East's Annual Papers Competition for Young Scholars Award
2015 Excelling Ph.D. Research Award, Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy
2014 Award for Doctoral Thesis Proposals, The Joseph and Racheline Barda Chair for the Study and Research of Jewish Heritage in Egypt, Haifa University
2013-2017 Scholarship in memory of Nathan Rotenstreich for excelling Ph.D. students, The Israeli Council for Higher Education
Courses Taught
Spring 2023 Advanced Hebrew 2; Local Histories in Central Illinois; Israeli Television and Cinema
Fall 2022 The Arab-Israeli Conflict; & The Modern Middle East Since WW1; Intermediate Hebrew 1; Advanced Hebrew 1
Full list:
Gender, Jewish Identity, and Israeli Identity on the Screen
Intro to Historic Interpretation - Difference and co-existence in the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries
Local Histories: Jewish Life in Small Central Illinois CommunitiesThe Jews of the Modern Middle East
Israeli Television and Cinema
Modern Jewish History since the 1700s
Jewish Life in Small Communities in Central Illinois: Archives, Microhistory and Oral History
The History of Egypt since WW1
Jews in Egypt during the First Half of the 20th Century: Gender, Family and Middle Eastern Modernities (Achva Academic College, Achva Israel)
Middle Eastern History 101 (Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, Tel Aviv Israel; Sapir Academic College)
Millets and Minorities in the Middle East during the 19th-20th Centuries (Achva Academic College, Achva, Israel)
History of the Middle East and Islam: History, Society, Culture (Sapir Academic College, Sderot, Israel)
The Jewish Bourgeoisie in Egypt: A Modern Middle Eastern Society (Achva Academic College, Achva Israel)
The Jews in Egypt during the First Half of the 20th Century: Gender, Family, Hierarchy (Achva Academic College, Achva Israel)
Questions of Family, Gender, and Social Relations in Contemporary Middle-Eastern Societies (David Yellin Academic College of Education, Jerusalem, Israel)
Egyptian Modernity: Questions of Bourgeoisie, Migration and gendered relations (Achva Academic College, Achva Israel)
History of the Middle East and Islam: History, Society, Culture (Sapir Academic College, Sderot, Israel)
Methodology and Academic Skills (Ben Gurion University, Be'er Sheba, Israel)
Additional Campus Affiliations
European Union Center Affiliate
Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Affiliate
Gen-Ed Committee member
Israel Institute Teaching Fellow
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
TEACHING COMMENDATIONS AND AWARDS
2020-2021 List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
2017-2018 Letter of Commendation from the Head of the Humanities Department and Dean of Kibbutzim College for Education, Technology and the Arts Faculty of Humanities for pedagogic, educational, and academic excellence.
SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
European Social Sciences History Conference, The International Institute of Social History (IISH), Gothenburg, Sweden, - biannual conference- Modernity, Migration and the Family Ego-Documents and the 'Aliya from Egypt to Israel, April 12-15, 2023
Association for Israel Studies, Ramat Gan, Israel, - Annual Conference- Conflicts and Mobility in a Diverse Society, Local and Foreign: Immigration and the Modern History of Egyptian Jews, June 27-29, 2022
American Jewish Historic Association, Tulane, New Orleans - Biannual Scholars Conference, Building Bridges in the Americas -Small but Big: The Contributions and Challenges of the Central Illinois Jewish Communities' Archives, May 15-17, 2022
American Jewish Studies, Chicago IL - Annual Conference- Family and the Traditional-Modern Dichotomy: Changing the Paradigm through Jewish Middle Eastern Experiences, December 19-21, 2021.
Association for Israel Studies, Urbana Champaign, IL- Annual Conference- Class in Transition: Between MENA Jews and Mizrahim in Israel, Class in Transition: The Emergence of Middle-Class Identity among the Jews of Cairo and Alexandria in the First Half of the Twentieth Century, and Its' Role in their Integration into Israeli Society after 1948, June 7-9, 2021
American Jewish Studies, San Diego CA- Annual Conference- Exodus or Expulsion Reconstructing the past of Jews of Egypt in the 20th Century, presented by a colleague in my absence due to illness. Dec. 14-17, 2019
American Jewish Studies, San Diego CA- Annual Conference- Exodus or Expulsion Reconstructing the past of Jews of Egypt in the 20th Century, presented by a colleague in my absence due to illness, Dec. 14-17, 2019
Bath Spa University & Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative, Bath, England- International Conference; Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts (Les Passés dans le Présent): A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis and Cross-Case Synthesis of Oral Histories and History in Post-Conflict and Postcolonial Contexts- Changing Representations of Egypt and its' Departure: Memories and Life Stories of Former Members of the Jewish Community in Modern Egypt, 2018
Centre de Recherche Francais de Jérusalem (CRFJ) with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel- Annual International Conference; Ways of Remembering, Ways of Forgetting: Diasporas In and Out of Israel- Interfaith Marriage, the Appropriation of Modernity and Migration: A Changing Narrative, 2017
Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem, Israel- International Workshop; Jewish Women's Cultural Capital under Islam- Life Experiences of Women of the Jewish Bourgeoisie in Egypt during the First Half of the 20th Century, 2017
WORKSHOPS, CONFERENCES AND PANELS ORGANIZED
American Jewish Historic Association, Tulane, New Orleans - Biannual Scholars Conference, Bridging the Lacuna of Local Jewish Histories Jewish Lives in Small/er Communities in the United States, round table organizer, May, 2022
American Jewish Studies, Chicago IL - Annual Conference- Family, Modernity and Transition in the Twentieth Century: A Cross-Regional Perspective, Round table Organizer, December 2021
American Israel Studies, Urbana Champaign, IL- Annual Conference- Class in Transition: Between MENA Jews and Mizrahim in Israel, Committee Member, 2021
American Jewish Studies, San Diego CA- Annual Conference- The Struggle over the Memory of Middle Eastern Jewish Lives A Revived Narrative of Persecution and Expulsion, Panel Organizer, 2019
Centre de Recherche Francais de Jérusalem (CRFJ) with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel- Annual International Conference- Ways of Remembering, Ways of Forgetting: Diasporas In and Out of Israel, Co-Organizer, 2017
SELECT INVITED SPEAKER EVENTS
"Challenging Myths and Stereotypes: Jewish Middle Eastern History since the 1700s", Case Western University, March 2022
"Israel and Israelis on the Screen", Case Western University, January 2022
New York State Working Group on Jewish Women and Gender in Global Perspective, Final Symposium 2020-21, New Explorations: History of the Bodies and Embodiments of the Self, "The Female Body and Modern Performativity in Egypt's Jewish Community in the First Half of the Twentieth Century", June 2021
Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York, Honorarium, Jewish Studies Department, "A Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Family: Challenging Stereotypes"; Modernity, Socio-Cultural Practices and Oral Testimonials", December 2018
Highlighted Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
"Class performativity, modernity and the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi divide the Jewish urban middle classes of Egypt in Israel 1948-1967", Looking for Work in Israeli Culture Special Issue, Journal of Israeli History, https://doi.org/10.1080/13531042.2022.2149125, December 2022
"Habitus, Socio-Cultural Practice and the Construction of Modernity: The Jews of Cairo and Alexandria during the First Half of the 20th Century", Jama'a Bilingual Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Middle East, First Prize Winner of the Jama'a Journal Young Researchers' Papers Award, May 2019.
Book Reviews
Marglin, Jessica. Across Legal Lines Jews and Muslims in Modern Morocco, (Yale University Press, 2016), Review of Middle Eastern Studies Journal, June 2019.
Motzafi-Haller, Pnina. Concrete Boxes: Mizrahi Women on Israel's Periphery (Wayne State University Press, 2018) [Forthcoming in Journal of Jewish Identities].
Forthcoming
Monograph, Gender and Family in a Period of Transition: Jewish Egyptian Women between the First and Second World Wars [Hebrew] (tentative name, under contract with Resling Academic Press).
Solicited
"Urban Middle Class Performativity: Time, Space and the Architecture of the Jewish Community in Cairo and Alexandria in the Twentieth Century", Time and Space and the Jewish Middle Eastern Experience, Guy Miron and David Guedg eds.
Recent Publications
"Class performativity, modernity and the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi divide the Jewish urban middle classes of Egypt in Israel 1948-1967", Looking for Work in Israeli Culture Special Issue, Journal of Israeli History, https://doi.org/10.1080/13531042.2022.2149125, December 2022