Shay Hazkani
Associate Professor, History
Associate Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
hazkani@umd.edu
1118C Taliaferro Hall
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Education
Ph.D., History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies,, New York University
M.A., Arab Studies, Georgetown University
B.A., Middle Eastern History, Tel Aviv University
Research Expertise
Israel
Jewish History
Middle East
Palestine
Shay Hazkani is a historian of the modern Middle East, with a particular interest in the social and cultural history of Palestine/Israel, and Middle Eastern Jews. In his research and teaching he focuses on the interactions between elites and non-elites, and how ideas which emanate from elites and state institutions were transformed and subverted as they make their way to the reflections and conduct of ordinary people.
His book, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War published April 2021 by Stanford University Press, recasts the 1948 war in Palestine through a socio-cultural history of the conflict’s ordinary actors and its transnational reverberations. The book draws on never-before-used personal letters in Arabic and Hebrew which challenge the war accounts of politicians and generals, whose words continue to shape histories of the conflict. Dear Palestine shows that the stories ordinary people told themselves about the war were far more diverse and complex than the nationalist fervor and unquestioning loyalty to the cause usually imputed to them. The book is forthcoming in Hebrew, and a documentary based on its research, “The Soldier’s Opinion,” premiered in the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2022.
Dr. Hazkani has been involved in various struggles over archival declassification policies in Israel. In 2019, he petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court together with the Association for Civil Rights, to compel the Israeli domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, to open its archives to the public. Prior to his academic career, Shay worked as a journalist covering the West Bank and Israeli military.
Courses
Awards & Grants
Shay Hazkani Receives 2023-2024 NEH Fellowship
Shay Hazkani receives 2023-2024 NEH Fellowship for Scholars Conducting Field-Based Humanities Research in Palestine
Author/Lead: Shay HazkaniShay Hazkani has received a 2023-2024 NEH Fellowship for Scholars Conducting Field-Based Humanities Research in Palestine. The Fellowship is administered by the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC). PARC promotes academic research on Palestine by US researchers and assists in disseminating those research findings.
Shay has also been awarded the Concordia University Library/Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies Best Book in Israel Studies Award for his recent book Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War (Stanford University Press, 2021).
Shay Hazkani Book Wins Korenblat Book Award
Hazakni's Dear Palestine Awarded Book Prize
Author/Lead: Shay HazkaniAward Organization:
The Cherrick Center for the Study of Zionism, the Yishuv, and the State of Israel Korenblat Book Award in Israel Studies
The Cherrick Center for the Study of Zionism, the Yishuv, and the State of Israel have announced that Shay Hazkani's recent book, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War (Stanford University Press, 2021), is the recipient of the 2022 Korenblat Book Award in Israel Studies.
From the award letter:
“Dear Palestine marks a paradigm shift in the study of the relations between Jews and Arabs. In an engaging and literary style, Shay Hazkani orchestrates numerous letters and diaries of Jewish and Arab soldiers during the 1948 War, in addition to military journals, pamphlets, and radio broadcasts of the Israel Defense Forces and the Arab League’s volunteer army. This is a microhistory of the ordinary individuals who withstood indoctrination and cooptation, sometime against their best interests. It is a story that quietly defies monolithic and binary perceptions passed down by nationalist histories. In their stead, Hazkani offers a relational account that listens to a more nuanced human network which steers this commendable and unpretentiously radical book.”
The Korenblat Book Award in Israel Studies was established in 2021 by Dr. Phillip Korenblat to promote exceptional scholarly contribution in the field of Israel Studies, and honor each year a book of outstanding merit in either Hebrew or English by scholars at all stages of their career.
Publications
Shay Hazkani published an article "'Our Cruel Polish Brothers': Moroccan Jews between Casablanca and Wadi Salib, 1956-1959" in Jewish Social Studies 28. 2 (Spring/Summer 2023): 41-74.
The film, The Soldier's Opinion, is based on Shay Hazkani's recent book, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War (Stanford University Press, 2021). Shay is credited as a co-creator and script writer for the film. It was directed by Assaf Banitt and was produced for Israel's main cable network, Hot Telecommunication. The film will air on Israeli TV in late October 2022 and will be screened in the US as well. The film was part of the Jerusalem Film Festival i July 2022 in the Diamond Competition for Israeli Documentary Films.
Photo courtesy of Tom Weintraub Louk