Naomi Mandel Associate Professor of English & Comparative Literature Coordinator of English at Feinstein Campus, Providence Ph.D. University of California, Irvine (Critical Theory Emphasis) M.A. University of California, Irvine B.A. Tel Aviv University B.M. Tel Aviv University Office: 149 Independence Hall Phone: 401-874-4011 E-Mail: mandel@uri.edu Office Hours: Wed 4:00 - 5:00 & by appt. Mon 2:00 - 4:00 & by appt. Feinstein Campus, Prov.

Growing up in the context of Israel’s combative political climate, the war in Lebanon, and the Intifada may account for some of Mandel’s intellectual interests in international politics, community identity, mourning, trauma, violence, and war. Her book Against the Unspeakable: Complicity, the Holocaust, and Slavery in America (University of Virginia Press, 2006) investigates the assumption that atrocity defies language, representation, comprehension, and thought, focusing on the forms this assumption takes, the roles it plays, the sources of its appeal, and what happens when we resist it. In collaboration with Alain-Philippe Durand of the Department of Languages, Mandel has co-edited a collection of essays on Novels of the Contemporary Extreme, which investigates this new form of fiction and explores its international dimension. Her current book project, Visions of Violence, Ethical Work, explores violence as a site where our relations with ourselves, our relations with others, and our interactions with society can be explored, and proposes an approach to violence as a creative, generative, positive force rather than as a contaminating "other" that must be subdued, excluded or repressed. Mandel has published essays and reviews in boundary 2, Modern Fiction Studies, SubStance, Criticism, Modernism/Modernity, Dialectical Anthropology, Cultural Critique and the online Journal of Mundane Behavior, where she edited a special edition on "Atrocity, Outrage and the Ordinary." Ongoing projects include trying to wake up earlier in the morning and watching less T.V.

Mandel's course offerings focus on contemporary literature and critical theory; they tend to be interdisciplinary in nature, with extensive use of visual media and music. Recent undergraduate courses include: Violence and Representation; History of Literary Theory and Criticism (offered through the URI Honors Program); Postmodern and Contemporary Literature; Violence and the Novel (offered through the URI Honors Program). Graduate courses include: Studies in Critical Theories; U.S. Literature Responding to War; Testimony; Morrison, Styron and the Politics of Identity; Violence. Mandel also regularly teaches introductory-level courses in the General Education Program as well as in the English Department.

In her role as Literature TA Supervisor, Mandel administers the Teaching Assistant Program in the English Department, a formal program of preparation for TAs when they are teaching literature courses. She is currently serving in a limited joint appointment with the URI Honors Program.