Benjamin Fisher
Ph.D. Student
befisher@sas.upenn.edu
Education
B.A., University of Toronto (2003); M.A., University of Toronto (2004); Ph.D. Candidate, University of Pennsylvania
Field
Early Modern European Jewish History
Research Interests
Jewish History, Jewish-Christian Interaction
Advisor
Personal Statement
I have been interested in the history of early modern Europe, with a specific focus on the Jews of Italy during this period, since my undergraduate years at the University of Toronto. My research areas include the intellectual and cultural history of European Jews in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Jewish-Christian interaction, and the history of the book as it pertains to both. I am also very committed to the themes and history of the renaissance and reformation. Through my doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania, I am investigating Christian Hebraism and its impact on both Jewish and Christian societies in Italy, France, and England. I am also studying the effects of the printing press on Jewish culture and on Jewish-Christian relations, as well as cultural packaging and transmission through Jewish and Christian texts in the medieval and early modern periods.
