The ECL department is thrilled to introduce one of our newest faculty members, Professor Sheera Talpaz. Recently moving from a small liberal arts college, Prof. Talpaz is excited by UNC’s diversity in ideas, people, and resources.
“I look forward to collaborating with other faculty across the university, planning enriching events, and later down the line, teaching an in-person course at one of the local state prisons as part of the Correctional Education Program.”
With research centering on modern Hebrew, Arabic, and English literature with a focus on Palestine/Israel and an interest in translation, nationalism studies, and prison literature, Prof. Talpaz brings applicable and thought provoking scholarship to UNC’s campus.
Prof. Talpaz currently has two major projects in development. She is completing her first monograph on the “national poets” of Palestine and Israel and has been devoting more time to her second, “which deals with Palestinian prison literature in a broad sense: literary works written in and about prison, literary trials, censorship laws and mechanisms of repression, the trauma of (mis)translation, and the like.”
In her courses, Prof. Talpaz brings a hands-on approach to translation studies, guiding students through creative and critical translation work. One of her favorite teaching moments comes during her CMPL 250 course’s translation unit, where “we dip our feet into a few important works in Translation Studies, and then students have the chance to produce translations of their own, either intralingually (between two different kinds of English) or interlingually (from a foreign language into English).” Students then present their work in an in-class symposium, explaining their approach and choice while giving the class a hands-on appreciation of the art and craft of translation.
A personal lover of poetry—her name actually means “poetry”—Prof. Talpaz regularly revisits the work of poets Yehuda Amichai and Mahmoud Darwish, who continue to influence her academic and personal life. Recently, she has also been exploring the works of Louise Glück and highly recommends the films of Wong Kar-wai.
We are thrilled to welcome Professor Talpaz to our department, and we hope students can connect with her and benefit from time in her classroom in the upcoming semesters!
