The 2026 Professor Dan Miron Lecture in Hebrew Literature

This talk explores the emergence of an Israeli tradition of poetry written by disabled women. Focusing on the works of Orit Marton and Inbal Eshel Cahansky, it examines how contemporary Israeli poets with physical disabilities engage with questions of gender, illness, and embodiment as part of their self-exploration and artistic practice. In tracing their longing for connection to poetic ancestors whose disability legacies have only recently become visible, the talk shows how these poets reclaim a neglected literary lineage and assemble a dispersed poetic archive. Through their engagement with this newly cohering tradition, they imagine new cultural possibilities and articulate compelling visions of disability futurities.

Ilana Szobel is Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature, holding the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Chair in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department, Core Faculty in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the Interim Director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities at Brandeis University.

She is the author of A Poetics of Trauma: The Work of Dahlia Ravikovitch (Brandeis University Press, 2013), Flesh of My Flesh: Sexual Violence in Modern Hebrew Literature (SUNY Press, 2021), which was a finalist for the Concordia University Library–Azrieli Institute Award for Best Book in Israel Studies, and The Un-Chosen Body: Disability Culture in Israel (Wayne State University Press, 2025).

Szobel has also published a poetry book, Once Upon a Days (בשכבר הימים הבאים) (Iton 77 Publishing House, 2023), and edited two poetry collections by Tsvia Litevsky: Core of Stillness (עין הדומיה) (Carmel Publishing House, 2021) and Nothingness in Its Entirety (הריק ומלואו) (Afik Books Publishing House, 2024).

*Guests must register by Monday, March 23, to be approved for campus access; unregistered guests will not be permitted on campus. Each guest must register individually using a unique email address.

Supported by the generosity of the Knapp family.

While all IIJS events are free and open to the public, we do encourage a suggested donation of $10.

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