Scholarship from the Periphery: An Israeli Perspective

When I read the call for papers for "Scholarship across the Aisle," I was unsure if my own experiences would be relevant. The roundtable would focus on encouraging interdisciplinary approaches and collaborations within eighteenth-century studies. My research, however, is very much within the dominant cultural tradition of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS): I study British literature, and I focus on Samuel Richardson. Further, I am a graduate student, and this would be my first ASECS conference. Who am I, I wondered, to participate in a Presidential session that will advocate for new directions in the organization and, possibly, in the discipline?

Nonetheless, I decided my perspective is important. I approached this roundtable not as a scholar who breaks disciplinary boundaries, but as a scholar who works beyond geographic ones. I am an advanced doctoral student at Bar Ilan University, which is one of five research universities in Israel. I moved to Israel seven years ago, having completed my M.A. at the University of Pennsylvania. My experience has been unique as an Israeli eighteenth-century scholar. I'd like to suggest that beyond recognizing the theoretical and content-driven divides that characterize eighteenth-century studies, it is worth considering other boundaries that prevent engagement with scholars who work outside of North America and Europe. In this short essay I describe some of the challenges that Israeli scholars face in studying English literature on the periphery of the English-speaking world. I also hope to describe some of the innovative solutions they have come up with and to pose some suggestions of my own.

The first challenge is the small number of people in the country who specialize in the eighteenth century. While eighteenth-century literary studies is, by comparison, a relatively popular field in American academia, this is far from the case in Israel. At the University of Pennsylvania, I took courses with eight to ten other graduate students working on the eighteenth century, but at Bar Ilan there are fewer graduate students overall. As far as I know, there are two professors in Israel who specialize in eighteenth-century British literature, and I am the sole doctoral student in this specialty. This means that we lack a local community of scholars to learn from, collaborate with, and share our ideas with. I fondly remember my days as an M.A. student when I took a course on Samuel Richardson with a sizable group of eighteenth-century specialists. I took a different graduate course on the 1680s, and the next year a course was offered on the 1790s. No such courses would be taught at an Israeli university; nor would such students be found. While my peers can provide me with general feedback, I lack peers who specialize in my field and who can relate to my work in a specific, knowledgeable way. Beyond a lack of a peer group within my specialty, the demographics of most graduate students in Israel also impacts the overall student experience. Students tend to be older—I'm the youngest at thirty-two, with the next in age at forty. The other students are in their forties and fifties. We almost all have children, and those without a fellowship work full time. This demographic has its advantages. The students have more life experiences and are genuinely committed to their research, often sacrificing a lot amidst their busy schedules with work and family to devote time to writing. However, since there are few course requirements and almost no one lives on campus, there is a much greater feeling of isolation.

Other challenges result from limited institutional funding, particularly in our libraries. My campus library has a surprising inventory of scholarship, and what I cannot find there I can likely order from Hebrew University, Tel Aviv, Haifa, or Ben Gurion. However, logistical issues make the process of basic research fairly complicated. Like most graduate students, I do not live on campus. Any time I want to check out a book, I need to travel by car, bus, or train for almost an hour. Merely procuring the research materials that...