After earning her BA in Comparative and English Literature at Tel Aviv University (Israel), Vered Weiss completed her MA in Comparative and World Literature at San Francisco State University, and her doctorate at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. Her research interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature in Hebrew and English; literature and nationalism; postcolonial literature and theory; gender studies; and critical theory. 

Her work in Hebrew literature and Israeli culture focuses on the employment of spatial metaphors and Gothic horror. She explores the ways in which these tropes are culturally based but also cross boundaries between countries and people. Her doctoral thesis entitled “Oh Other Where Art Thou: Spatial Awareness in Hebrew and English Literature of the Nineteenth to Mid Twentieth Century,” compares several canonical works of Hebrew and English literature of the nineteenth- to mid-twentieth century and reveals similarities in the employment of Gothic elements. The comparative analysis is based on two connections between the two cultures: the first is the shared mythical roots, and the second the spatial and historical connection between the two cultures in relation to(post)colonialism. Following Ilan Troen’s conceptualization of “settler colonialism,” the comparative analysis explores literary representations of various concerns of settlers in both communities. The research examines literary means that convey and consider alterity, and the manner in which the location of the monstrous Other is indicative of the relationship of the respective imagined community and sovereignty.

Vered Weiss was on UIUC's campus for the Fall of 2015 and Spring of 2016 through the Israel Studies Project.