Marissa Herzig

My research focuses on the nonhuman in Jewish folklore. Using disability studies, critical race theory, and gender and sexuality studies, I examine how the construct of the human relies on gendered, ableist, racialized norms. In exploring the potential for contemporary Jewish women American authors to reimagine the bounds of sentience through the nonhuman figures of the golem, dybbuk, and doll, my research attempts to shed light on Jewish literature's unique discursive relationship to the nonhuman.

List of Publications

• “Vampires and Jews: Blood, Race, and Monstrosity.” Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies. Forthcoming January 2025.
• “Disturbed Depths: The Ecological Aquatic Otherness of the Leviathan in From Dust, A Flame” Experiencing the Hebrew Bible, Baron Lectures, Vol, 2. Forthcoming December 2024.
• “On the Shoulders of Giants: Helene Wecker’s Subversion of the Female Golem” The Macksey Journal, Vol. 2, September 2021.
• “Fairies and Fairness: The Aesthetic of White Femininity in Jane Eyre” Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review, Vol. 1, July 2021.
• “Creation, Names, and Life: Humanity and Femininity in the Female Golem Myth.” Israiliyat, Vol. 7, June 2021, pp. 37-60.