News from the Center for the Study of Cultures at Rice University

National Endowment for the Humanities and other donors. According to CSC director Werner Kelber, “Professor Handelman was selected as the fourth NEH Distinguished Visiting Scholar in recognition of her notable contribution to integrating Jewish religious thought into the modern humanities and to tracing plausible links between the Rabbinic interpretive tradition and several influential schools in modern and postmodern critical theory.” Kelber further remarks that “Professor Nussbaum is a model of what the often-invoked interdisciplinarity might look like when enacted knowledgeably and courageously. In her ability to relate ancient Greek philosophy with contemporary moral problems, concepts of feminism, literature, and literary theory, Nussbaum stands in a class all by herself.” Handelman’s work draws on biblical hermeneutics, ancient and contemporary philosophy, literary theory, theology, and psychoanalysis. She has illuminated the relations between literary criticism and its roots in the Patristic and Rabbinic interpretive traditions. Her work demonstrates the vitality literary criticism can regain when it views itself as the displacement Susan Handelman and Martha Nussbaum Visit the CSC as NEH Distinguished Visiting Scholars