Bio
Dr. Daniella Farah, Assistant Director of Jewish Studies, brings over 13 years of experience in teaching, advising, administration, and research in the higher education sphere. With a PhD in Jewish History from Stanford University, her research has focused on interreligious encounters, national belonging, and Jewish identity formation in the modern Middle East, particularly in Iran and Turkey. After earning her doctorate, she served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at Rice University and a Visiting Assistant Professor of History & Jewish Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Farah’s work has been supported by several fellowships, grants, and awards, including a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Baron New Voices in Jewish Studies Award, the Association for Jewish Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and an Excellence in Teaching Award. Outside of academia, she has partnered with Jewish nonprofits including the World Jewish Congress and the Chicago-based Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, gaining meaningful experience in Jewish communal life through consulting and volunteer roles.
Publications
- “The Jewish Legacy of Iran,” World Jewish Congress’ Legacy of the Jewish People Across the Middle East and North Africa Project (Nov. 2023).
- “Jews and Education in Modern Iran: The ‘Threat of Assimilation’ and Changing Educational Landscapes,” Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, Society 28, no. 3 (Fall 2023): 171-199.
- “Integrating Mizrahi and Sephardi Voices into Jewish Studies Curricula,” Branches: News from the Program in Jewish Studies at Rice University 21 (Spring 2022): 3.
- “‘The school is the Link Between the Jewish Community and the Surrounding Milieu’: Education and the Jews of Iran from the Mid-1940s to the Late 1960s,” Middle Eastern Studies 57, no. 5 (March 2021): 793-809.