Robert Kawashima
Assistant Professor of Religion
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
Hebrew Bible, Comparative Literature, Ancient Mediterranean Religions

Office: 008 Anderson Hall
Phone: (352) 392-1625
Email: rsk@ufl.edu

Robert Kawashima holds a joint appointment in the Department of Religion and the Center for Jewish Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the faculty of the University of Florida, he taught at UC Berkeley and New York University. His work is broadly comparative, focusing on the Hebrew Bible in relation to both the ancient Mediterranean world and the literary and intellectual history of the West; other research interests include literary theory, linguistics, epic, and the novel. His first book, Biblical Narrative and the Death of the Rhapsode (Indiana University Press, 2004), was a finalist for the Koret Jewish Book Award, under the category: Autobiography, Biography and Literary Studies. He is currently at work on a second book, The Archaeology of Ancient Israelite Knowledge, an analysis of Israel’s religious traditions informed by Foucault’s investigations into the history of systems of thought. He is also co-editing (with Ann Banfield) a volume of historically significant essays on literary style and poetics, with the tentative title, Represented Speech, Style Indirect Libre, Erlebte Rede.