NINA CAPUTO

Department of History                                                                       E-mail: ncaputo@ufl.edu

025 Keene-Flint Hall                                                               Phone: 352.273-3379

University of Florida                                                              Fax: 352.392.6927

Gainesville, FL 32611                                                

 

Education

December 1999                                               Ph.D. , History, University of California, Berkeley

 

October 1996-June 1998                                 Visiting Researcher The Remarque Institute, New York University

 

1992                                                                Masters of Arts, Jewish History, University of California, Los Angeles

 

1991-1992                                                       Visiting Research Fellow, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

 

1989                                                                Bachelor of Arts,  History, University of California, Los Angeles,

 

1987-1988                                                       Junior Year Abroad, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

 

Professional Experience

August 2003-present                                      Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Florida

 

September 2002-May 2003                            Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History and Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan

 

 

September 2001-June 2002                             Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Humanities Forum

 

September 2001-June 2002                             Adjunct Fellow, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

 

August 1999-May 2003                                  Assistant Professor, Department of History, Florida International University

 

August 1998-May 1999                                  Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, Florida International University

 

Publications

Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: Community, History, and Messianism, (Notre Dame University Press, 2007)

 

- Articles

"Moses Nahmanides" in The Cambridge Dictionary of Jewish History, Religion, and Culture, ed. Judith Baskin (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2010)

 

"Regional History, Jewish Memory: The Purim of Narbonne" Jewish History  vol. 22, no. 1-2 (June, 2008): 97-114.

 

"Prophecy and Redemption: Messianic Expectation in Nahmanides' Sefer ha-Ge'ulah" in Time and Eternity in the Middle Ages ed. Gerson Moreno-Ria–o and Axel MŸller (Turnhout [Belgium]: Brepols, 2003).

 

 "To Kill the  Thorns in the Vineyard:  A Medieval Rabbi's Argument for Diversity within Unity" in Orthodoxie, christianisme, histoire ed. Susanna Elm, ƒric Rebillard, Anotella Romano (Rome: L'ƒcole franaise de Rome, 2000).

 

 " 'In The BeginningÉ:' Typology, History, and the Unfolding Meaning of Creation in Nahmanides' Exegesis." Jewish Social Studies,  6:1 (Fall, 1999), 52-84.

 

- Book Reviews

Review of Mozarabs in Medieval and Early Modern Spain: Identities and Influences by Richard Hitchcock (Ashgate Press, 2008) in The Sixteenth Century Journal (forthcoming)

 

Review of Jewish Martyrs in the Pagan and Christian Worlds by Shmuel Shepkaru (Cambridge University Press, 2006) in The Medieval Review 08.10.21 (2008)

 

Review of The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms, 1350-1500 by Anthony Bale (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, No. 60) (Cambridge University Press, 2006), in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 39:1 (2008): 103-104.

 

Review of Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism by J.H. Chajes (Jewish Culture and Contexts) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 38:1 (2007): 108-109.

 

Review of The Contemplative Soul: Hebrew Poetry and Philosophical Theory in Medieval Spain by Adena Tanenbaum, (ƒtudes sur le Juda•sme MŽdiŽval) (Brill, 2002) in The Medieval Review 04.11.15 (2004)

 

Review of Fashioning Jewish Identity in Medieval Western Christendom by Robert Chazan, (Cambridge University Press, 2004) in The Medieval Review 04.11.12 (2004)

 

Invited Lectures and Symposia

"Reviewing the Cases for Convivencia: The Politics of Representing Medieval Iberian Jewry" Orientalism and Fundamentalism in Jewish and Islamic Critique: A Conference Honoring Sadik al-Azm (Funded by the Ford Foundation), Dartmouth College, January 2006

 

"The Pen is Sharper than the Sword: Polemics as Holy War in Medieval Judaism," at The Rhetorics of Holy War, the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture, University of California, Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union, February, 2005

 

"Boundaries of Faith: The Figure of the Apostate in the Barcelona Disputation," Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida, February, 2003

 

"Between Local Recovery and Jewish Memory:  Notes on a Thirteenth-Century Brush with Catastrophe"  Plenary Address, Recovery: Pre-Modern Responses to Catastrophe and Convulsion, Binghamton University, November, 2002

 

"Historical Time and Redemptive Time:  Temporal Exegesis in Nahmanides Disputation Account," Invited Speaker, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, April, 2002

 

"Expectation of the Messiah in 13th Century Aragon" Penn Humanities Forum, University of Pennsylvania, March, 2002

 

"Conversion and Inversion:  Representations of Jewishness in the Barcelona Disputation Account" Invited Speaker, Annenberg Seminar, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania, February, 2002

 

"Contested Authorities:  Representation of Community in the Barcelona Disputation Narrative," Invited Speaker, The Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University, January, 2002

 

"Testing the Boundaries of Local Jewish Culture:  Conflict and Contact in the Barcelona Disputation (1263)," Invited Speaker, Leeds University, Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History and Centre for Medieval Studies, April, 2001.

 

Conference Papers

"Reconquista, Conversion, and the Question of Tolerance: Petrus Alfonsi's Dialogi contra iudaeos" American Society for Church History, Montreal, April 2009

 

"What a Difference a Day Makes: Is the Vernacular in Nahmanides' Disputation Account Evidence for a Shared Catalan Aesthetic?" Medieval Academy, 81st Annual Meeting, Boston, March 2006

 

"Auspicious Beginnings: The Mythical Origins of Narbonnese Jewry According to Medieval Hebrew Historical Narratives" Fifteenth Biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, March 2006

 

"In Common Parlance: Jewish-Christian Debate and the Formation of Catalonian Culture," Fourteenth Biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies The New College Florida, March 2004

 

 "Telling the Present, Recalling the Future:  Messianic Expectation in the Barcelona Disputation Account",  Perceptions of the Past Visions of the Future, 2003 Annual Conference, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, February, 2003

 

"Jewish Identity, Jewish Leadership:  Nahmanides' Self-Representation in the Barcelona Disputation Account" Changing Identities, 1000-1600, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, February, 2001

 

 "Prophecy and Redemption:  Messianic Expectation in Nahmanides' Sefer ha-Ge'ulah" International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, July, 2000

 

"History, Creation, and Typology:  Nahmanides' Commentary on Bereshit"  Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, December 1998

 

 "The Rabbi, The Apostate, and the King:  Testing the Local Boundaries of Medieval Jewish Culture,"  Intellectual History and Practice:  A Workshop, University of California, Berkeley, October 1998

 

 "To kill the  thorns in the vineyard:  A Medieval Rabbi's Argument for Diversity within Unity"  Colloque DŽfinir, Mainterir et Remettre en Cause l'Orthodoxie, ƒcole Franaise de Rome, July 1998;  Boston University, February, 1998.

 

"The Maimonidean Controversy:  Accusations and Responses in the Name of Jewish Orthodoxy," Medieval Studies Group, University of California, Berkeley, October 1997

 

"Transforming the Past:  Narrative and Remembrance in Medieval French Jewish Chronicles," International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, July 1996

 

"Vessels of Jewish Memory:  The Chronicle of the Purim of Narbonne," Medieval Studies Colloquium, University of California, Berkeley, September 1994

 

Fellowships, Scholarships, and Grants

2007    Humanities Scholarship Enhancement Grant, University of Florida

 

2004    Humanities Scholarship Advancement Grant, University of Florida

 

2001-2002       Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Penn Humanities Forum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

 

Fall 2000, Spring 2000, Spring 1999  Faculty Development Grant-in-Aid

            College of Arts and Sciences, Florida International University

 

1997-1998       Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley

 

1993-1997       Koret Foundation Fellowship, Koret Foundation for Jewish Culture

 

1997    Medieval Studies Research Grant, Committee for Medieval Studies, University of California, Berkeley

 

1996    Humanities Graduate Research Grant, Graduate Division, University of California, Berkeley

 

1995    Heller Foundation Research Grant,University of California, Berkeley

 

1995    Medieval Studies Research Grant, Committee for Medieval Studies, University of California, Berkeley

 

1992-1993       Jerome S. Friedburg Fellowship, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley

 

1991-1992       Inter-university Fellowship, Friends of Hebrew University, Jerusalem

 

1990-1992       Provost Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles 

 

Professional Activities

2009-   Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies, member, Editorial Board

 

2008-   Associate Graduate Coordinator, Department of History, University of Floirda

 

2006-2007       Personnel and Policy Committee, member, Department of History, University of Florida

 

2006, Spring    Modern Middle East Search Committee, member, Department of History, University of Florida

 

2005, Fall        Alexander Grass Postdoctoral Fellowship Search Committee, chair, Center for Jewish Studies

 

2005, Fall        Japanese History Search Committee, member, Department of History, University of Florida

 

2003-2004       American Religious History Search Committee, member, Department of Religion, University of Florida

 

2003-2005       Program Committee for the 2005 Conference, Medieval Academy of America, member

 

1999-2000       Modern European History Search Committee, member, Department of History, Florida International University

 

August 1999-  Working Group for Pre-modern Studies, founding member, Florida International University, Committee organizing interdisciplinary area studies program

 

May 1999        European Studies Steering Committee, member, Florida International University, Committee serving interdisciplinary program

 

August 1998-  Judaic Studies Steering Committee, member, Florida International University, Committee serving interdisciplinary program

 

August 1995-March 1996       Associate Curator Sanford L. Ziff Jewish Museum of Florida

 

Spring 1995     Editorial Assistant Jewish Social Studies:  History, Culture, and Society