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Jewish Community News
JCN: October 2006
Jewish Studies at SJSU hires new coordinator
Dr.
Vicki Harrison has been hired as the new Jewish Studies Coordinator at
San Jose State University, but she is not new to SJSU or to work within
the Jewish community. With a PhD in English from Rutgers University, she
began her teaching career in the English department at U.C. Santa Barbara,
where she was a professor for nine years, teaching and directing PhD dissertations
in American, women’s and Jewish literatures.
When she and her husband, Peter Ullmann, had their first daughter, Harrison became a visiting lecturer in SJSU’s English department. A few years later, she joined Kehillah Jewish High School as the first English department chair. Harrison has been on the board of trustees at her daughters’ school, Yavneh Day School, for three years, serving as grants chair.
Harrison has clear goals for SJSU’s Jewish Studies program, begun
35 ago and thriving always for the fortunate few who discovered it: Harrison
will grow the program. She is working with each of the half-dozen interdisciplinary
departments to encourage and support Jewish Studies faculty, and she is
facilitating Jewish student enrollment in these classes. She will work
with departments to hire lecturers to teach Jewish Studies courses, when
regular faculty are not available. And she will seek to raise funds in
the community and through foundations, to support these vital goals.
Harrison is committed to making SJSU’s Jewish Studies accessible
and valuable to the Silicon Valley Jewish community. To that end, one
of the first programs she will oversee is the Levinson Lecture, named
in memory of Religious Studies Professor Bob Levinson, who founded the
Jewish Studies program.
Speaking on Jewish-Muslim relations and the Abrahamic traditions will be Hartford Seminary Professor Yehezkel Landau. From 1991 to 2003, Landau was co-founder and co-director of the Open House Center for Jewish-Arab Coexistence in Ramle, Israel.
He lectures internationally and has authored numerous journal
articles on Middle East peace, co-editing the book “Voices from
Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land.” Most recently
he has authored a research report for the US Institute of Peace, entitled
“Healing the Holy Land: Interreligious Peacebuilding in Israel/Palestine.”
His talk will be part of the “Difficult Dialogues Initiative”
at SJSU, Friday October 27, 10 a.m.-noon in Clark 117, with a Kosher reception
following at Hillel (336 East William St).
News