» Dr. Shira Klein

Assistant Professor

Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Department of History

Office Location:

Roosevelt Hall 134

Office Hours:

T/TH 9-10a

Phone:

714-516-4581

Email:

sklein@chapman.edu

Education

Tel Aviv University, Bachelor of Arts
University la Sapienza, Master of Arts
New York University, Ph.D.

Biography

Shira Klein is an assistant professor of History. Dr. Shira Klein joined the History Department in Fall 2012 after completing her PhD at New York University.  She is currently completing a book on the history of Italian Jews in the modern period. It enquires into the experiences of Italian Jews from their emancipation, through the Fascist regime, and until after the Holocaust. This research expands the traditional boundaries of European Jewish history. It encompasses both the prewar and postwar periods, and examines both Europe and the United States and Palestine, the overseas destinations of Italian Jewish emigrants.

Dr Klein’s new project is on ‘Italian Jews and the Scramble for Africa,’ from the 1890s to World War II.

Dr Klein teaches both introductory surveys and more in-depth courses in Jewish, European, migration, and Holocaust history. She incorporates digital humanities tools in her classes, and has published on pedagogical issues.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation Fellowship in Jewish Studies
• Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Scholarship
• USC Shoah Foundation International Teaching Fellow
• Pedagogical Innovation Award, Chapman University
• Paula Hyman Mentorship Program Recipient (HUC & JTS)
• Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, New York University

Publications

Peer-Reviewed:

• “Challenging the Myth of Italian Jewish Assimilation,” Modern Judaism 37 (1), 76-107. View here.
• “An Army of Housewives: Women’s Wartime Columns in Two Mainstream Israeli Newspapers,” Nashim: Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, Vol. 15, Spring 2008, p. 88-107. View here.

Other Publications:

• Multimedia Israel: New Methods of Teaching Zionism,” Podcast Interview for Tel Aviv Review, June 2016. Viewable here.
• "History Lessons Cast in Bronze,” Chapman Magazine, October 2015. Viewable here.
• “How to Use Wikipedia to Teach Jewish Studies,” AJSNews: Newsletter of the Association for Jewish Studies, May 2015. Viewable here.
• Interview for Ha Keillah: Turin’s Jewish Community Newsletter, March 2015 (in Italian). Viewable here.
• “Teaching Research Skills and German-Jewish History with DigiBaeck,” Leo Baeck Institute Newsletter, September 2013. Viewable here.
• Review of Elizabeth Schächter, The Jews of Italy, 1848-1915: Between Tradition and Transformation (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2011), Journal of Jewish Identities, July 2013. Viewable here.
• Co-authored with A. Kuerbis and M. Armillas-Tiseyra, "Building Bridges," Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, March-April 2011, p. 57-58. Viewable here.
• “Displaced Persons Act,” in Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by Kathleen Arnold. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 2011, p. 160-165. View here.

Courses

• Hist 234: 3,000 Years of Jewish History
• Hist 358: Jewish Life from Napoleon to Hitler: France, Italy, Germany
• Hist 357: History of Jewish Migration
• Hist 317: On the Move! Migrations in World History
• Hist 305: Cooking, Clothes, and Comics: History of Daily Life in Modern Europe
• Hist 520C: Migration and War (Course in the MA War & Society Program)