Mokhtarian 11/2016 JASON SION MOKHTARIAN
Borns Jewish Studies Program
Department of Religious Studies
Indiana University, Bloomington
230 Sycamore Hall, 1033 E. Third St.
Bloomington, IN 47405
[email protected]
________________________________________________________________________
EMPLOYMENT
2011- Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies, Indiana University
Adjunct in History, Central Eurasian Studies, Ancient Studies, Islamic Studies,
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
EDUCATION
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
Ph.D., Early and Late Antique Judaism
June 2011
• Dissertation: “Rabbinic Portrayals of Persia: A Study of Babylonian Rabbinic Culture
in its Sasanian Context”
• Exams: Rabbinic Literature, Second Temple Judaism, Ancient Iranian Religions,
Hebrew, Aramaic (Babylonian Talmud), Middle Persian
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
M.A., Ancient Iranian Studies
June 2007
• Exams: Old Persian, Middle Persian, New Persian, Sasanian History
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Lady Davis Visiting Research Fellow (Talmud and Iranian Studies)
University of Chicago
M.A., History of Judaism
B.A./A.M., English and Religious Studies
Jerusalem
2005-06
Chicago, IL
June 2004
June 2001
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Jewish studies and Iranian studies: Jews of late antiquity, Rabbinics, Talmud in its
Sasanian context, Aramaic incantation bowls, Second Temple Judaism, history of the
Jews of Persia, ancient Iranian history, religions, and languages
LANGUAGES
Hebrew, Aramaic, Middle Persian, Old Persian, New Persian, Avestan, Arabic, French,
German
1 Mokhtarian 11/2016 I. PUBLICATIONS
Books
Published:
Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests: The Culture of the Talmud in Ancient Iran
(Oakland: University of California Press, 2015).
Award: Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the category of
Scholarship (Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award), Jewish Book Council.
In preparation:
“May there be Healing from Heaven”: An Intellectual History of Talmudic
Medicine.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
Published:
“Excommunication in Jewish Babylonia: Comparing Bavli Mo‘ed Qaṭan 14b-17b and
the Aramaic Bowl Spells in a Sasanian Context,” Harvard Theological Review
108 (2015): 552-578.
“The Boundaries of an Infidel in Zoroastrianism: A Middle Persian Term of Otherness
for Jews, Christians, and Muslims,” Iranian Studies 48 (2015): 99-115.
“Authority and Empire in Sasanian Babylonia: The Rabbis and King Shapur in
Dialogue,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 19 (2012): 148-180.
In progress:
“‘May there be Healing from Heaven’: Remedies for Fevers in the Babylonian
Talmud and the Jewish Aramaic Bowls.”
“A History of the Jewish Aramaic Incantation Bowls: From Excavation to Future
Prospects.”
“Hierarchies of Knowledge in the Škand Gumānīg Wizār’s Polemics against Islam,
Judaism, and Manichaeism.”
Essays in Edited Volumes
Published:
“Rabbinic Depictions of the Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great: The Babylonian
Esther Midrash (bMeg. 10b-17a) in its Iranian Context,” in The Talmud in its
Iranian Context (eds. Carol Bakhos and M. Rahim Shayegan; Tübingen: Mohr
Siebeck, 2010), 112-139.
Submitted:
“Iranian Loanwords in Talmudic Folkore from the Chapter of the Pious (Bavli Ta‘anit
18b-26a),” in The Aggada of the Babylonian Talmud and its Cultural World (eds.
Geoffrey Herman and Jeffrey Rubenstein).
“The Material Culture of the Jews in Sasanian Mesopotamia,” in The Wiley-Blackwell
Companion to Jews and Judaism in the Late Ancient Period (eds. Naomi KoltunFromm and Gwynn Kessler).
In progress:
“Talmudic Portrayals of Persians as Others,” in Routledge Handbook of Jews and
Judaism in Late Antiquity.
2 Mokhtarian 11/2016 Edited volume
“Religious Trends in Late Ancient and Early Islamic Iran,” a special edition of the
journal Iranian Studies 48, No. 1 (2015): 1-115. Co-edited with David Bennett.
Book Reviews
Review of Behind the Academic Curtain: How to Find Success and Happiness with a
Ph.D., by Frank F. Furstenberg (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013).
Teaching Theology and Religion (March, 2015).
Review of Shoshannat Yaakov: Jewish and Iranian Studies in Honor of Yaakov
Elman, edited by S. Secunda and S. Fine (Boston: Brill, 2012). Zion 79 (2014):
438-42 [Hebrew].
Review of The Open Past: Subjectivity and Remembering in the Talmud, by Sergey
Dolgopolski (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012). H-Net Reviews
(2014).
Review of Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash, by Rivka Ulmer (New York: Walter
de Gruyter, 2009). Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic
and Roman Period 42 (2011): 437.
Magazine article
“Translations of the Talmud in Iran Today,” Association for Jewish Studies
Perspectives: The Translation Issue (Fall, 2015).
II. LECTURES
Invited Lectures
“Zoroastrian Polemics against Islam, Judaism, and Manichaeism: A Study of the Škand
Gumānīg Wizār in its Literary and Historical Context.” Indiana University,
Workshop on Holistic Approaches to the Study of Early Islam and the Late Antique
World (April, 2016).
“Talmudic Tales in their Iranian Context.” University of California, Los Angeles, Center
for the Study of Religion (March, 2016).
“Language and Communication in Sasanian Mesopotamia.” New York University, The
Aggada of the Babylonian Talmud and its Cultural World (June, 2015).
“The Early Islamic Context of Pahlavi Sources on Judaism,” Indiana University Islamic
Studies conference, Mapping the Landscapes of Islamic Studies (Nov., 2014).
“‘May there be Healing from Heaven’: Magic and the Human Body in the Jewish
Aramaic Bowls.” University of Michigan, Midwest Ancient Judaism colloquium,
Ancient Jewish Imaginaries (April, 2014).
Respondent, Indiana University Jewish Studies Program graduate student conference,
Genesis to Yesterday: Memory, Representation, and Jewish Identity (Feb., 2014).
“The Talmud in Ancient Iran: The Rabbis and Persian Priests in a Judicial Context.”
University of California, Irvine, co-sponsored by the Center for Persian Studies and
Culture and the Program in Jewish Studies (March, 2013).
“The Babylonian Talmud between Persia and Rome: Rabbis, Magians, and Magicians in
Context.” Indiana University Ancient Studies colloquium (March, 2013).
“Jewish Culture in Ancient Iran: From Ezra the Scribe to the Bavli.” UCLA Fowler
Museum conference, Light and Shadows: The Story of Iranian Jews (Jan., 2013).
3 Mokhtarian 11/2016 “Pahlavi Representations of the Other and the Rise of Islam.” Indiana University Islamic
Studies conference, Mapping the Landscapes of Islamic Studies (Nov., 2012).
“The Babylonian Talmud in its Iranian Setting.” UCLA Center for Jewish Studies
workshop (Oct., 2009).
“The Sages and King Shapur in Dialogue.” Princeton University graduate student
workshop, Rabbis and Others in Conversation (May, 2009)
“Rabbinic Depictions of the Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great: The Babylonian Esther
Midrash (bMeg. 10b-17a) in its Iranian Context.” University of California, Los
Angeles conference, The Talmud in its Iranian Context (May, 2007).
Conference Papers
“Religious Polemics in Sasanian Writings.” Middle East Studies Association, 2016.
“The Methods and Sources for the Study of the Talmud in Its Sasanian Context.”
Association for Jewish Studies, 2015.
“Disease and Bodily Injury in the Jewish Aramaic Bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia.”
American Academy of Religion, Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity, 2014.
“Excommunication and Rabbinic Authority in Late Sasanian Culture.” Association for
Jewish Studies, 2013.
“‘If the haughty cease to exist, the magian priests cease to exist’: Babylonian Rabbinic
Engagement with the Persian Empire.” American Academy of Religion, 2012.
“Empire and Authority in Sasanian Babylonia: The sociocultural ties between the Rabbis
and Zoroastrian Priests.” Society of Biblical Literature, 2011.
“The Two Halves of Divinity: Deuteronomy Rabbah 11.4, Bavli Sanhedrin 39a, and the
Portrayals of Persia in Midrash.” Society of Biblical Literature, 2009.
III. TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Indiana University, Jewish Studies Program and Department of Religious Studies
Undergraduate courses
Introduction to Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Introduction to Jewish History: From the Bible to Spanish Expulsion
Rabbinic Judaism: Literature and Beliefs
Jews, Christians, and Others in Late Antiquity
Introduction to Judaism
Sacred Books of the Jews
Torah, Temple, and God in Ancient Judaism
Graduate Directed Readings
Late Antique Judaism
Zoroastrian Hermeneutics
Religious Interaction in the Early Islamic Period
Readings in Aramaic: Targum
4 Mokhtarian 11/2016 IV. AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the category of Scholarship (Nahum M.
Sarna Memorial Award), Jewish Book Council, 2016, for Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings,
and Priests: The Culture of the Talmud in Ancient Iran.
Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Institute grant, with Kevin Jaques and
Jeremy Schott, “Holistic Approaches to the Study of Early Islam and the Late
Antique World,” 2015-16.
Foundation for Jewish Culture, Dissertation Fellowship in Jewish Studies, 2010-2011
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Dissertation Scholarship, 2010-2011
UCLA Graduate Division, Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2010-2011
UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, Summer Roter Research Fellowship, 2010
UCLA Graduate Division, Lenart Travel Fellowship, 2009-2010
UCLA Regents Stipend, 2009-2010
Lady Davis Graduate Research Fellowship, Hebrew University, 2005-2006
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships
(Arabic, Persian, Hebrew), 2004-2008
V. SERVICE
Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University
Biblical Hebrew Coordinator, 2015-present
Search committee, Biblical Hebrew, 2015
Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum, 2013-14
Committee on Undergraduate Affairs, 2012-14, 2015-16
Committee on Undergraduate and Graduate Fellowships, 2011-12
Indiana University, Department of Religious Studies
Teaching Excellence Committee, 2015-16
Committee on Graduate studies, 2013-15
Committee on establishing Minor in International school, 2013-14
Search committee, Religion in the Americas, 2012-13
Search committee, Hebrew Bible, 2012-13
Advisor, B.A. Honor’s Thesis, 2011-12, 2012-13
Fulbright Evaluation Committee, Office of International Affairs, 2012-13
Committee on Community and Engagement, 2011-12
Advisor, B.A. Honor’s Thesis, 2011-12
Professional Service
Member of American Academy of Religion, Society of Biblical Literature,
Association for Jewish Studies, Middle East Studies Association.
Steering committee, American Academy of Religion unit, “Traditions of Eastern Late
Antiquity.”
Peer-reviewer for numerous university presses and journals in Jewish Studies.
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