NEW YORK, N.Y. — Dr. Nehama Aschkenasy, director of the Center for Judaic and Middle Eastern Studies at UConn-Stamford and a professor of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at UConn, is among several prominent scholars featured in Contemporary Israel: New Insights and Scholarship, a new book in the series “Jewish Studies in the Twenty-First Century,” published by New York University Press and edited by Professor Frederick E. Greenspan. Aschkenasy’s chapter is titled “Israeli Fiction: National Identity and Private Lives.” According to a statement released by New York University Press, “Over the past generation, a substantial body of scholarship has explored numerous aspects of the country, including its approaches to citizenship and immigration, the arts, the women’s movement, religious fundamentalism, and language. . . This book does not seek to resolve either the country’s internal debates or its struggle with the Arab world, but to present a sample of contemporary scholars’ discoveries and discussions about modern Israel in an accessible way.”

Among the other senior scholars who contributed to the book are Calvin Goldscheider of Brown University and Ilan Troen of Brandeis University. Tragically, Professor Michael Feige of Ben Gurion University, whose chapter discusses Israeli fundamentalism, was killed last June in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.

Aschkenasy also recently presented a lecture titled “Thoroughly European, Perennially a Stranger: The Hebrew Writer David Vogel” for the International Convention on Europe, and sponsored by the Modern Language Association held in Dusseldorf, Germany.