Linguistics scholar Benjamin Hary of Emory University will kick off the newly created Karen and Pace Robinson Lecture on Modern Israel at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, August 29, in the McClung Museum auditorium at UT.

Hary’s lecture, “The Politics of Judeo-Arabic: Israel as a Bilingual State,” is being presented by the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies.

“We are fortunate to have a scholar as accomplished as Dr. Hary help us begin this new lecture series,” said Gilya Schmidt, a professor in religious studies and director of the Steinfeld program. The lecture was made possible through the Karen and Pace Robinson Enrichment Fund, which was created to support public lectures and scholarship on the state of modern-day Israel.

Hary is a professor of Hebrew, Arabic, and linguistics at Emory University. His books include Multiglossia in Judeo-Arabic, Translating Religion, and Daily Life in Israel. He has published more than fifty articles and book reviews on Arabic and Hebrew linguistics as well as Judeo-Arabic, which is a continuum of Arabic dialects spoken by Jewish people living in the Arab world.

Following the presentation, a reception will be held upstairs at the McClung Museum. Both events are free and open to the public. Free parking will be available at Circle Park and in the C-8 commuter parking lot next to the museum.

For more information on the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies, visit the website.

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C O N T A C T :

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, charles.primm@tennessee.edu)