Olga Gershenson
Professor of Judaic and Middle Eastern Studies & Film Studies Adjunct Professor
Office Hours:
Mondays and Wednesdays 3:45pm - 4:15pm, & by appointment
Video Profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBbpDYjUgh4
Olga Gershenson is Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and of Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a multi-disciplinary scholar, with interests at the intersection of culture, history, and film.
Her first book, Gesher: Russian Theater in Israel (2005), pioneered the study of Russian immigrant cultural production. A series of articles on Russian-Israeli cinema cemented her status as the premier expert in the field. Gershenson's second book, The Phantom Holocaust (2013), reveals unknown Holocaust films from the Soviet Union. According to the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies, it "will serve as a foundation for all further research and reflection on the topic." Professor Gershenson’s new book New Israeli Horror: Local Cinema, Global Genre is forthcoming from Rutgers University Press. She is currently editing The Handbook of Judaism and Film for Oxford University Press.
Along with film, Gershenson does innovative research on spaces. Her collection Ladies and Gents: Public Toilets and Gender (2009) established the discipline of Toilet Studies. Her special issue of Eastern European Jewish Affairs (co-edited with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett) charts for the first time a map of new Jewish museums throughout post-communist Europe.
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Gershenson teaches courses on Israeli and Palestinian cinemas, on Holocaust films, on Jewish humor and popular culture. She is an editor of the “Teaching with Film and Media” column at AJS Perspectives. In addition to her home institution, she has taught internationally, including in Israel, China, India, Russia, and UAE.
To learn more about her work, see her website
Courses Recently Taught:
Judaic/Middle Eastern Studies 344 Film and Society in Israel
Judaic Studies 320 Jewish Humor
Judaic Studies 354 Adaptation: The Jewish Experience from Text to Film
Judaic Studies 364 Cinema of the Holocaust
Judaic/Middle Eastern Studies 377 Israel/Palestine through Film and Pop Culture
Judaic 385 Russian Jews
Judaic Studies 497P Cinema Paranoia: Epidemics/Upheavals/Catastrophes