Roni Masel works on Hebrew and Yiddish literatures and studies them in the context of modern Jewish history and culture in Eastern Europe, the history of reading and history of the book, and queer and postcolonial theory. Masel is currently completing a book manuscript titled Bad Readers: Misreading, Mistranslation, and Other Textual Malpractices in Hebrew and Yiddish, which explores Jewish literatures in Eastern Europe from the perspective of reading and para-literacy, nationalism and dissent. The book reflects on what it means to accuse someone of being a bad reader, how turning this accusation on its head can offer a liberating prospect, and how the long history of this accusation shaped modern Jewish textuality more broadly. A new project, tentatively titled “Yiddish Empires: Visions of Race and the Global in Modern Yiddish Culture,” considers works of literature and philology to examine a globalizing Yiddish culture in the twentieth century between Europe, North America, and South Africa.

Masel holds a Ph.D. from New York University and a B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to teaching at Berkeley, Masel was a Fulbright US Postdoctoral Scholar and a postdoctoral fellow at the Frankel Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.

Appointed the Norma and Sam Dabby Chair for Jewish Studies, Masel is also a faculty affiliate of the Center for Jewish Studies and a member of the CJS Graduate Group, advising PhD students enrolled in the Designated Emphasis in Jewish Studies.