Research
My dissertation, Guilty Pleasures: The Rise of Popular Literature in the Modern Jewish World, investigates the development of popular literary culture in Jewish languages. Studying texts in Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish, and especially translations from French, Russian, and Spanish, I show how popular literature functioned as the primary site for the negotiation of Jewishness as a modern identity and for the reinvention of Jewish languages and textual traditions
My dissertation project has been supported by the Rackham Graduate School and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.
My MA project, about Brazilian Jewish fiction, won awards for outstanding research from the Berg Foundation and the Dean of Humanities at Tel Aviv University.
Acadmic Publications
2021
Marina Mayorski, “Ladino Translation and Ottoman Jewish Modernization,” Eastward, 2021 (Hebrew). Article Link.
Tamir Karkason and Marina Mayorski, “Sephardi Culture in Salonica in Light of Ladino Satirical Feuilletons, Eastward, 2021. Article Link.
Blog Posts
2023
“Nat Pinkerton: Detective Novels in Ladino,” Lost in the Stacks: University of Michigan Library Blog (2023). https://blogs.lib.umich.edu/lost-stacks/nat-pinkerton-detective-novels-ladino
“The Revival of Ladino Literature,” Lost in the Stacks: University of Michigan Library Blog (2023). https://blogs.lib.umich.edu/lost-stacks/revival-ladino-literature
2021
“The Multivalence of Hebrew Alphabet Across Jewish Languages in the HathiTrust Repository,” Sites of Translation in the Multilingual Midwest: Mellon Sawyer Seminar, University of Michigan (2021). https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/translatemidwest/2021/04/27/the-multivalence-of-hebrew-alphabet-across-jewish-languages-in-the-hathitrust-repository/
2020
“Endangered and Emerging Jewish Languages: An Interview with Sarah Bunin Benor,” In Geveb (2020). https://ingeveb.org/blog/interview-with-sarah-bunin-benor
Translations
2023
Uri Nissan Gnessin, “The Meal before the Fast” (Warsaw, 1905), translated from Hebrew., featured in Absinthe: World Literature in Translation, special issue deidcated to Jewish Multilingualism (forthcoming, December 2023).
Adolfo de Castro, The Bondage of Jews in Spain (Istanbul, 1875), translated from Ladino (forthcoming, December 2023).
Moshe Bar-Nissin, Ester (Jerusalem, 1910), roman feuilleton translated from Hebrew (forthcoming, December 2023).
2021
Grace Aguilar, Yeshayahu Gelbhaus, The War of Faith and Love (Maintz, 1874), roman feuilleton translated from Hebrew, featured in Bellow the Line: The Feuilleton and Modern Jewish Culture. Link.
Moshe Cazes. “Uncle Ezra and his Wife Benuta” and "Uncle Bohor and his Wife Djamila," satirical feuilletons translated from Ladino, featured in Bellow the Line: The Feuilleton and Modern Jewish Culture. Link.