DGLnotes: Notes from the scholarship of D Gershon Lewental

Coming soon

I am a cultural historian of the Middle East, focusing on how societies use religion, memory, and conflict to define and maintain their identities. In my publications and in my classes, I explore this theme in various chronological and geographical contexts, and the scarlet thread running through my research is an attention to shared heritages and historical continuities, which I find in what appear to be contradictory narratives or unconnected cultures through a comparative and transnational approach.

• The Battles of al-Qādisiyyah: Religion, nationalism, and historical memory in the Middle East (under contract at Edinburgh University Press; a book manuscript examining the function of religious rhetoric and member in political discourse in the modern Middle East; near completion).
• A History of Israel (under contract at Bloomsbury Academic Press; a book manuscript covering the history of Israel).
• Hahambaşı on the River Charles: Studies in Ottoman, Jewish, and modern Middle Eastern history in memory of Avigdor Levy (under contract at E J Brill Academic Publisher; an edited memorial volume covering topics in Ottoman, Jewish, and Middle Eastern histories).
• Epic encounters at al-Qādisiyyah: Narrative and identity in early Islamic historical texts (a book manuscript highlighting the literary nature of the historical texts of early Islamic civilisation).
• The Development of the Bahāʾī faith in Israel and its relations with British and Israeli authorities, 1917–present..

• Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

  Beʾer Shevaʿ, Israel
  Department of Middle East Studies

  October 2025–present
  Senior lecturer (Associate professor)
• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  Jerusalem, Israel
  Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

  March 2023–September 2026
  Adjunct professor
• The University of Oklahoma

  Norman, Oklahoma
  Departments of History and International & Area Studies

  August 2012–present
  Visiting assistant professor; adjunct professor (since 2018)
• Shalem College

  Jerusalem, Israel
  Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

  February 2017–September 2022
  Lecturer (Assistant professor)

• Brandeis University

  Waltham, Massachusetts
  Lown School of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies

  August 2003–August 2011
  PhD, MA, modern Middle Eastern history; 4.0 GPA
  Dissertation title: ‘Qādisiyyah, then and now: A Case study of history and memory, religion, and nationalism in Middle Eastern discourse’; committee: Avigdor Levy (chair), Kanan Makiya, David S Powers (Cornell University).
  Synopsis: I examined the perceptions of the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah, an engagement during the Arab-Muslim conquest of Iran in the 630s, as they changed already in the first centuries of Islam down to the contemporary Middle East. My thesis included a lengthy study of early Islamic historiography, a deconstruction of the traditional Qādisiyyah narrative, and an investigation of the modern manipulation of its memory with a particular focus on the discourse of Baʿthī Iraq under Ṣaddām Ḥusayn, as well as radical Islamists. My analysis explored the dynamic of religion and nationalism in modern identity, as well as the rôle of memory—such as that of al-Qādisiyyah—in connecting the two. In recognition of this dissertation, I was honoured with the Foundation of Iranian Studies Best Dissertation Award (2012) and the Brandeis University Glatzer Dissertation Prize (2012).
• Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan

  Dushanbe, Tajikistan
  Institute of Languages and Literature

  June–July 2009
  US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship—Intensive Persian Summer Institute
• University of Wisconsin

  Madison, Wisconsin
  Department of Arabic & Persian Languages

  June–August 2005
  Persian immersion programme
• Cornell University

  Ithaca, New York
  Departments of Near Eastern Studies and Economics, College of Arts & Sciences

  August 1999–May 2003
  AB magna cum laude; with distinction and a concentration in International Relations; Dean’s List

• ASMEA Conference travel grant
  Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa

  2022; 2021; 2019; 2018; 2017; 2015; 2014; 2013
• Best PhD Dissertation on a Topic of Iranian Studies
  Foundation of Iranian Studies

  November 2012
• Nahum & Anne Glatzer Endowed Dissertation Prize
  Brandeis University

  May 2012
• Redstone Dissertation Year Fellowship
  Brandeis University

  February 2010
• Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies GTR grant
  Brandeis University

  October 2009; August 2008; August 2007; April 2005
• Critical Language Scholarship for Intensive Persian Study
  US Department of State

  March 2009
• Mellon Dissertation Research Grant
  Brandeis University

  March 2009
• Provost’s Dissertation Expense Award
  Brandeis University

  April 2008
• Sachar Travel Scholarship
  Brandeis University

  March 2008
• Book grant (runner-up)
  Gorgias Press

  January 2006
• Graduate School Outstanding Teaching Prize
  Brandeis University

  2004–2005
• College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s List
  Cornell University

  Fall 2002; Spring 2003

• Journal of Persianate Societies

  January 2016–present
  Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (Publisher: E J Brill)

  Leiden, The Netherlands
  Associate Editor
• E J Brill Academic Press

  March 2007–present
  Translation editor and content editor

  Leiden, The Netherlands
  Official Hebrew translator for the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic world (1^st and 2^nd eds.; Leiden: E J Brill).
• Freelance translator

  October 2010–present
  Translations include Yaron Harel’s Zionism in Damascus (I B Tauris, 2015) and Yaron Tsur’s ‘Historical Jewish Press’ website.

• Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS)

  2010–present
  Board of Directors member

  2017–present
• Association for Iranian Studies (AIS)

  2006–present
• Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA)

  2012–present
• American Oriental Society (AOS)

  2013–2016
• Middle East Studies Association (MESA)

  2003–2022
• Middle East & Islamic Studies Association of Israel (MEISAI)

  2022–2026
• Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)

  2014–2015
• Association for Israel Studies (AIS)

  2016–2017, 2024–present
• World Union of Jewish Studies (WUJS)