Scienceאלה שוחט

Ella Shohat

Ella Shohat is an American professor of cultural studies at New York University who writes on Eurocentrism, orientalism, post-colonialism and Arab-Jewish identity.

born 1959Scholarship on Arab-Jewish identityStudy of Mizrahim in Israeli cinemaPost-colonial and cultural studiesMizrahi feminist activism

Born: 28 August 1959, Petah Tikva
Occupation: university teacher, literary theorist, cultural studies scholar
Education: New York University, Bar-Ilan University

Ella Shohat was born in 1959 in Petah Tikva

Shohat was born in 1959 in Petah Tikva and grew up there. Her parents were Jews from Baghdad who came to Israel. At home she spoke Baghdadi Jewish Arabic with her parents, and she describes herself as an Arab Jew.

She earned a bachelor's degree at Bar-Ilan University, where she met the activist Tikva Levi. She then moved to New York for graduate studies at New York University and completed her doctorate in 1986. Her dissertation examined how Mizrahim were portrayed in Israeli cinema.

After her doctorate she joined the New York University faculty and later became a professor in its departments of art, public policy and Middle Eastern studies. In 1991 her dissertation came out in Hebrew as a book on Israeli cinema, which drew criticism from film critic Meir Schnitzer. Her research was cited in the Knesset during a protest over a new stage version of Sallah Shabati.

She took part in a Mizrahi and Palestinian meeting in Toledo, Spain, in 1989 and in the Mizrahi feminist movement. Her book On the Arab Jew, Palestine and Other Displacements won the Middle East Monitor Palestine Book Award 2017 for Memoir. Her work has been translated into languages including Arabic, Hebrew, French and Japanese.