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Mrs. Irena Rudiakov

My name is Irena Rudiakov. I am a direct-track Ph.D. student in our Department, a mother, and a poet in my free time. Between the years 2016-2019 I’ve been awarded The Direct Ph.D. Track President Scholarship and, since 2019, I am the recipient of the Rotenstreich Scholarship for outstanding Ph.D. students in the humanities.
My dissertation, under the supervision of Professor Noam Flinker, offers a reading of John Milton’s Paradise Lost as a family drama, through the lens of contemporary family systems theory. The main goal of my project is to present a humanistic, non-dualistic reading of the celebrated epic, consistent with Milton’s own monistic convictions, and with the biblical tradition of the father-son root metaphor.
I am also working as a teaching assistant of Dr Alex Feldman for the course Survey IV – Twentieth-Century English Literature, conducting tutorials for students several times a week.
My studies of English Language and Literature have been a constant source of inspiration, of professional experience and personal growth for many years and I am honoured and grateful to be part of our Department.


Dr. Tal Zalmanovich

I am a cultural historian of media and modern Britain. I hold a PhD in History from Rutgers University, and am now a Research Fellow at the University of Haifa. My work has examined television and celebrity culture as sites of political engagement and solidarity. My current book manuscript Broadcasting Bias: The Struggle over Apartheid on British Television, 1960-1990, documents both the televisual representation of apartheid and the efforts of activists, diplomats, writers, actors, broadcasters, union members, and viewers to determine the perception of South Africa in Britain and shape the country’s policy vis-à-vis apartheid.
My work has been published in the journals Postcolonial Studies, Critical Arts and Safundi. A Special Issue co-edited with Louise Bethlehem for Critical Arts, “Celebrity and Protest in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle” will appear in print in September. In the fall, “The Comic Representation of Apartheid on British Television in the late 1960s,” will be published in the edited collection Apartheid in Western Europe: Perceptions and Reactions, 1948-1994 (Palgrave Macmillan). My research has been supported by the European Research Council, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Israel Science Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. Before embarking on my academic career, I was a journalist. I am a podcast host for New Books Network.