S.J. Pearce
New York University, Spanish and Portuguese, Faculty Member
- Cornell University, Near Eastern Studies, Alumnusadd
- Al-Andalus, Medieval Iberian History, Medieval Spain, Medieval Spanish Literature, Medieval Iberian Literature, Cairo Genizah, and 10 moreHistory of the Mediterranean, Abrahamic Religions, Hebrew Manuscripts, History of libraries, Tombs (Medieval Studies), Bible in Arabic, Al-Andalus in 20th-21st Century Literature, Christian Hebraism, Intellectual History, and Islamic Intellectual Historyedit
- S.J. Pearce is an associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University, where her t... moreS.J. Pearce is an associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University, where her teaching and research focus on the intellectual history and literature of Jews, Christians and Muslims in medieval Spain. During the academic year 2018-19 she is also an Institute Fellow at the Frankel Institute for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. Her recently-published first book, The Andalusi Literary and Intellectual Tradition: The Role of Arabic in Judah ibn Tibbon’s Ethical Will, examines the ways in which Jewish intellectuals in thirteenth century Spain and France understood Arabic to be a language of cultural prestige. She earned her PhD at Cornell University (Near Eastern Studies, 2011). During the 2012-13 academic year, she held the Louis and Hortense Apfelbaum Fellowship at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; and for the fall semester of 2014 she was awarded a Paulette Goddard Junior Faculty Fellowship at NYU. She is also the recipient of the Michael Camille Memorial Essay Prize (2014) and the John K. Walsh article prize awarded by the MLA Forum on Medieval Iberia and La Corónica (2015).edit
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The present article reviews the series of studies on the muwashshaḥāt and the kharajāt (strophic poems and their final couplets) that appeared, in conversation with each other, in La corónica during the 1980s. This series of articles was... more
The present article reviews the series of studies on the muwashshaḥāt and
the kharajāt (strophic poems and their final couplets) that appeared, in conversation with each other, in La corónica during the 1980s. This series of articles was foundational in the study of these poems in the English-speaking world, representing a hashing out of the role of bi- and multilingualism in Andalusi literature. Vituperative as they were path breaking, the articles represent an important turning point in the historiography of medieval Spain.
the kharajāt (strophic poems and their final couplets) that appeared, in conversation with each other, in La corónica during the 1980s. This series of articles was foundational in the study of these poems in the English-speaking world, representing a hashing out of the role of bi- and multilingualism in Andalusi literature. Vituperative as they were path breaking, the articles represent an important turning point in the historiography of medieval Spain.
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Reading The Moor's Last Sigh in light of Salman Rushdie's sources' seeks to shed light on the literary and historical sources that were used by Salman Rushdie in the course of writing about Islamic Spain, or al-Andalus, in his 1995 novel,... more
Reading The Moor's Last Sigh in light of Salman Rushdie's sources' seeks to shed light on the literary and historical sources that were used by Salman Rushdie in the course of writing about Islamic Spain, or al-Andalus, in his 1995 novel, The Moor's Last Sigh, and to explore the ways in which those sources help to shape the narrative. In addition to transcribing and publishing the archival record of Rushdie's personal bibliography of al-Andalus, the article particularly engages with his sources for the legends of the much-mythologised mercenary soldier Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, also known by the epithet el Cid. By doing so, the present study offers a more expansive, historically-contextualised reading of the titular 'last sigh' gesture that goes beyond its usual situation in the context of the surrender of Granada in 1492; and it also argues for the special centrality of women readers as figures within the novel, a contention that can be amplified through a source-critical reading of the novel and the scholarship and literature that form its textual substrata.
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Not an abstract, but a brief note: The call for submissions to the 2nd biennial Camille Prize (http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2014/03/announcement-2014-biennial-michael.html) was framed in such a way that I saw it as an opportunity... more
Not an abstract, but a brief note: The call for submissions to the 2nd biennial Camille Prize (http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2014/03/announcement-2014-biennial-michael.html) was framed in such a way that I saw it as an opportunity to begin to sketch out some ideas that I was beginning to percolate last summer. That's how I've always conceived of this essay; for a lot of reasons, when I submitted it I genuinely never thought that it would see the light of day. With that said, please read this with the understanding that it is, essentially, pages from my notebooks. Because of the preliminary nature of the work and because it the Camille Prize essay asks for a short piece (4-6,000 words), there is a lot that should be in here that isn't but that will eventually be developed in future work. Ultimately, though, I'm really grateful that the Camille Prize folks and Postmedieval editors saw the forest for the trees (or where the forest will eventually be for the saplings).
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A man in possession of a strange, esoteric and rare medieval manuscript written in an indecipherable old language is approached by a literature-loving friend who beseeches him to make the incredible text accessible by translating it and... more
A man in possession of a strange, esoteric and rare medieval manuscript written in an indecipherable old language is approached by a literature-loving friend who beseeches him to make the incredible text accessible by translating it and adding a suitable prologue. It was once a widely-read and -regarded text, but now, owing to social, religious and intellectual controversy, most of the copies have been destroyed -burned or sold for rag- but this hardly matters as so very few people would have been able to read it in its original language, anyway. The man gives in and labors away translating – or does he? The manuscript tells a story of books and death; and when you read it, you hardly know where its own contours end and where they begin to infiltrate the simulacrum of life that it refracts and sends up as much as it represents. Who, exactly, are the translator, the narrator, and the friend? Sword and lance, or paper and pen? The literary and the literal bleed.
O, idle reader, you think you know where this is going, don’t you?
You’re wrong.
O, idle reader, you think you know where this is going, don’t you?
You’re wrong.
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Of thousands of poems written in Hebrew between the closure of the canon of the Hebrew Bible and the dawn of modernity, a single exemplar is identified as having been written by a woman. Modern scholarship concerning this poem has... more
Of thousands of poems written in Hebrew between the closure of the canon of the Hebrew Bible and the dawn of modernity, a single exemplar is identified as having been written by a woman. Modern scholarship concerning this poem has primarily been interested in it as a unique and curious artifact of a woman writer working in Hebrew. The present article will reconsider that poem in light of documents in the Cairo Genizah that deal, from a documentary perspective, with the same concerns and activities that the poet treats in verse, specifically the ways in which women supported themselves financially in the absence of their husbands. This study will argue that the work of the supposed Andalusi Hebrew poetess reflects economic and social realities faced by women in Muslim Spain and more broadly in the Mediterranean society documented in the Genizah. The exchange of personal effects between the woman depicted in the poem and her husband stands as a literary comparison for records of similar exchanges and calls for both a more historicized reading of Genizah poetry and for studies of this poem that move beyond the question of the poet’s gender.
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Research Interests: Alexander the Great, Medieval Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Manuscripts, Translation, Maimonides, and 9 moreColophon, Codicology and Palaeography of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts, Samuel Ibn Tibbon, Maimonidean Controversy, History of Book Trade, Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts, Jews' College London, Daniel Itzig (Berlin), and Solomon Hirschell
Research Interests: Translation Studies, Iberian Studies, Historical memory, Urban Ruins, Philippine Studies, and 15 moreSephardic Studies, Galician Literature, Asturias, Alfonso X el Sabio, Spanish empire, Decolonial Thought, El Escorial, Biblioteca Nacional de España, The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, Desindustrialización, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Ruralism and Creativity, IBN AL-KHATIB, Timbuktu Manuscripts, and movimientos obreros
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This lecture series is an open, public component of the spring 2021 course, “Pandemic Literatures,” SPAN-UA 461/MEIS-UA 518/COLIT-UA 852-2, which is open to NYU & consortium undergrad and grad students. The syllabus is available here:... more
This lecture series is an open, public component of the spring 2021 course, “Pandemic Literatures,” SPAN-UA 461/MEIS-UA 518/COLIT-UA 852-2, which is open to NYU & consortium undergrad and grad students. The syllabus is available here: https://tinyurl.com/spanishflusyllabus. Register at this link for the series: https://tinyurl.com/spanishflulectures or scan the QR code on the poster.
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el taller @ kjcc is a new, non-hierarchical intellectual community in the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium designed to foster humanistic inquiry and collaboration relating to the arts, literatures, cultures, and histories of the... more
el taller @ kjcc is a new, non-hierarchical intellectual community in the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium designed to foster humanistic inquiry and collaboration relating to the arts, literatures, cultures, and histories of the Iberian Peninsula with no limits regarding periodization or language choice. el taller is hosted by the KJCC at NYU and will feature virtual and in-person workshops, lectures, and summer programming.
Our first annual Summer Institute program took place this year from July 20-23. Recordings of the roundtable and Q&A sessions are available on our web site: https://wp.nyu.edu/eltaller/video-archive/ Stay tuned for further programming!
Our first annual Summer Institute program took place this year from July 20-23. Recordings of the roundtable and Q&A sessions are available on our web site: https://wp.nyu.edu/eltaller/video-archive/ Stay tuned for further programming!
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For more information and to register: https://wp.nyu.edu/powerfulmirror/
Research Interests: Bible Translation, Al-Andalus, Ottoman-Venetian relations, Judeo-Arabic, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, and 10 moreMedieval Spain, Almohads, Medieval Arabic Literature, Islamic Historiography, Seville, medieval Hebrew poetry, Arabic Maqamat, Literature and Culture In Medieval Spain, Medieval Interpretation of the Bible, and Al-Hariri
Please join students, alumni, faculty, and friends of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures at NYU for a humanistic response to the US presidential election and the vandalism and hate crimes that have occurred... more
Please join students, alumni, faculty, and friends of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures at NYU for a humanistic response to the US presidential election and the vandalism and hate crimes that have occurred throughout New York City, including on our own campus, in its wake.
“Protest and Dissimulation: Muslims and Other Minorities in the Spanish-Speaking World” will explore the challenges faced by religious and ethnic minority communities in the Spanish-speaking world from the Middle Ages through the present day and examine the strategies that those communities used to resist, circumvent, survive, and even flourish under the pressure of those challenges. Through discussion and conversation, the evening will yield questions and modes of thinking that are grounded in the unique histories, literatures, and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world and that participants, attendees, and discussants can carry with them out into the wider contemporary world that is presenting its own evolving set of challenges to many modern communities.
This round-table and teach-in will take place on Thursday, December 1, from 6-8pm in the Great Room of 13-19 University Pl. A light supper will be served and attendees are encouraged to continue the discussion over the meal. The event will be live-streamed and archived online.
Speakers will include:
Farah Dih, NYU: "A Caste Society in the First Spanish Modernity"
Erica Field, NYU: “Dissimulation, Piety, and Fear”
Sibylle Fischer, NYU: "Stop Whining: On Politics of Racelessness and Executive Violence in Spanish America"
Nicholas Jones, Bucknell University: “Do Black Lives Matter in Spanish Early Modernity? Blackness, Cognitive Dissonance, Dissimulation”
Seth Kimmel, Columbia University: “The Ends of Multiculturalism”
S.J. Pearce, NYU: “Medieval Jews and Muslims in the Modern Nation”
“Protest and Dissimulation: Muslims and Other Minorities in the Spanish-Speaking World” will explore the challenges faced by religious and ethnic minority communities in the Spanish-speaking world from the Middle Ages through the present day and examine the strategies that those communities used to resist, circumvent, survive, and even flourish under the pressure of those challenges. Through discussion and conversation, the evening will yield questions and modes of thinking that are grounded in the unique histories, literatures, and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world and that participants, attendees, and discussants can carry with them out into the wider contemporary world that is presenting its own evolving set of challenges to many modern communities.
This round-table and teach-in will take place on Thursday, December 1, from 6-8pm in the Great Room of 13-19 University Pl. A light supper will be served and attendees are encouraged to continue the discussion over the meal. The event will be live-streamed and archived online.
Speakers will include:
Farah Dih, NYU: "A Caste Society in the First Spanish Modernity"
Erica Field, NYU: “Dissimulation, Piety, and Fear”
Sibylle Fischer, NYU: "Stop Whining: On Politics of Racelessness and Executive Violence in Spanish America"
Nicholas Jones, Bucknell University: “Do Black Lives Matter in Spanish Early Modernity? Blackness, Cognitive Dissonance, Dissimulation”
Seth Kimmel, Columbia University: “The Ends of Multiculturalism”
S.J. Pearce, NYU: “Medieval Jews and Muslims in the Modern Nation”
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One of a seven-part series on the life and works of Moses Maimonides. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/maimonides-as-community-leader/
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By local custom, faculty members in my department take turns contributing short essays to the in-house undergraduate journal. This time it was my turn. The piece is an adapted and translated version of a talk I gave last spring at the... more
By local custom, faculty members in my department take turns contributing short essays to the in-house undergraduate journal. This time it was my turn. The piece is an adapted and translated version of a talk I gave last spring at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies.
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I started out on the TT with a fantasy that for every academic article I wrote I'd also write a version for a general audience. The 1:1 ratio was a little too ambitious (and tbqh, there are some things that a general audience will just... more
I started out on the TT with a fantasy that for every academic article I wrote I'd also write a version for a general audience. The 1:1 ratio was a little too ambitious (and tbqh, there are some things that a general audience will just never care about, no matter how accessibly written), and it's taken a while to figure out how to navigate the non-academic publishing world, but here (finally!) is the popular version of an article of mine that appeared in Cultural History in 2014. https://www.asymptotejournal.com/special-feature/s-j-pearce-on-medieval-poetry/
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Read in absentia at the 53rd annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Chicago, USA.
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In this seminar we will trace and explore a range of ideas that developed about translation in the “Global Hispanophone” from the Middle Ages through the present. Using a largely cultural-historical historical approach (and a philological... more
In this seminar we will trace and explore a range of ideas that developed about translation in the “Global Hispanophone” from the Middle Ages through the present. Using a largely cultural-historical historical approach (and a philological one where appropriate), we will familiarize ourselves with the history and the techniques of translation as they develop through time and interrogate their significance and impact in the broader socio-cultural environments in which they emerged. Organized along both chronological and thematic axes, the sessions of the seminar will afford students the opportunity to develop broader knowledge about the transmission of text and idea within and across cultures and consider their implications for readership, for genre, for legibility, and other factors significant for engaging with text. The seminar offers students regular opportunities to write short critical essays as well as a final project in both the theory and practice of translation; in addition to the set readings, students will have several opportunities to pursue texts and ideas of their own choosing within the structure of the course.