Mazor, Yair

Professor Emeritus
Ancient & Modern Languages, Literatures, & Cultures

Education

  • PhD, Hebrew Literature and Theory of Literature, Tel Aviv University
  • MA, Modern Hebrew Literature (Summa Cum Laude); Tel Aviv University
  • BA, Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature; Drama and Theatre, Tel Aviv University

Research and Teaching Interests

Dr. Yair Mazor has published so far 28 scholarly books and over 250 articles and review essays.

Dr. Mazor's articles and review essays have been published in professional and literary periodicals in USA, Israel, Denmark, Norway, England, Italy, Germany and France. Professor Yair Mazor has delivered over 85 papers/lectures in professional conferences both national and international.

Professor Mazor is a very welcome academic speaker in numerous universities in USA, Israel and many European countries, such as the universities of Venice (Italy), Aarhus (Denmark),London College University (England), Cambridge (England), Oxford (England) Stockholm International Institute for Jewish Studies (Sweden), Bergen (Norway) Toledo (Spain), Granada (Spain), Tel Aviv (Israel), Bar Ilan (Israel) Ben Gurion (Israel), INALCO in Paris (France), Prague (the Czech Republic), Kumamoto ( Japan ) , Krakow ( Poland ) , Amsterdam ( The Netherlands ) and more.

Professor Mazor's scholarly books and articles focus on modern Hebrew literature (both poetry and prose fiction), Hebrew "Haskalah"/Enlightenment novel and story in Eastern Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries, Biblical literature (an aesthetic analysis of the biblical text), comparative literature (notably the influence of Scandinavian literature [ August Strindberg, Knut Hamsun ] on modern Hebrew literature [ S. Y. Agnon, 1966 Nobel Prize laureate ], theories of literature (from Aristotle, to Russian Formalism, French Structuralism, American New Criticism, Narratology, Post Structuralism, Deconstruction), modern Hebrew Drama, theory of drama and Hebrew children's literature. Professor Mazor's courses focus on modern Hebrew literature, theory of literature, an aesthetic approach to the Biblical text, contemporary Israeli cinema and modern Hebrew language.

Awards

  • 1979. "Shpan" scholarly prize (by Tel Aviv University) for the book: "The Dynamics of Motifs in S. Y. Agnon's Fiction" (Dekel Academic Press, Tel Aviv, 1979).
  • 1986. "Dov Sadan" scholarly prize (by Tel Aviv University) for the book: "A Well Wrought Enlightenment: The Compositional Poetics of the Hebrew Enlightenment Prose Fiction" (Papyrus Press of Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 1986).
  • 1997. "Baron Prize" for exceptional accomplishments in teaching and research in the field of Jewish Studies (endowed by Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning).
  • 1998. National Prize: "The Most Distinguished Scholar of Hebrew Studies in USA" "Friedman Prize" (endowed by the National Hebrew Organization in the USA).
  • 1999. "University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Most Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award".

Posts

  • 1994 - present. Professor of Hebrew and Biblical Literature, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
  • 1996-2004. First Director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Jewish Studies.
  • 1994-2006. Coordinator, Hebrew Studies Program, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.