Lital Levy

Lital Levy is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University’s Humanities Council, specializing in Hebrew and Arabic literatures, Jewish studies, and Middle Eastern studies. Her work bridges comparative literature, cultural studies, critical theory, and intellectual history, with a focus on multilingualism, transnationalism, and the politics of revival movements like the Nahda (Arabic renaissance) and Haskalah (Jewish enlightenment).

• Education: B.A. and M.A. in Middle Eastern and International Affairs from Columbia University; Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from U.C. Berkeley; Junior Fellow at Harvard Society of Fellows.

Levy’s research interrogates the interplay between language, identity, and modernity in the Middle East and Jewish diaspora contexts. She analyzes literary multilingualism, translation dynamics, and historical intercontact between Arabic and Hebrew traditions. Her current projects include studies of Esther Azhari Moyal (sole Jewish Nahda woman writer) and a reevaluation of the Global Haskalah through transnational Jewish linguistic exchanges.

Her notable works include the award-winning Poetic Trespass (2014), which won the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award, Salo Baron Prize, and MLA First Book Prize. She was also an ACLS Frederick Burkhardt Fellow (2019-2020) at the Institute for Advanced Study. Levy advises graduate students in comparative frameworks and teaches courses on world literature, Arab-Jewish identity, and critical theory.