Prof. Iris Rachamimov

Prof. Iris Rachamimov teaches modern history of Central and Eastern Europe at the Department of History with a special emphasis on the Habsburg Monarchy, World War I, LGBT History and Gender. She received her Ph.D. in 2000 from Columbia University, where she studied under the guidance of István Deák. Her book POWs and the Great War: Captivity on the Eastern Front (2002) was awarded the Fraenkel Prize for Contemporary History for a first major work. Her article "The Disruptive Comforts of Drag" was published in the April 2006 issue of the American Historical Review. She has written the chapter of military captivity in the latest edition of the Cambridge History of War, (2012) and her work appeared so far in six languages. She is currently editing a book with Rotem Kowner on mass internments during the First World War (World War I and its Internments: Local, National and Global Perspectives) and is writing a history of the Israeli trans community.

She was the Director of the Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies between 2009-2014 and the Chief Editor of the Hebrew-language historical Journal Zmanim between 2014-2019. During the year 2008-2009 she was a fellow of the Stanford Humanities Center, and in 2015-2016 a visiting fellow at St Antony's College , University of Oxford. 

Education

            Ph.D. Students

1.  Dr. Uri Ganani Heroines, Female Singers and Spectators:  Politics and Imagination in the Operatic World of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 1909-1933 with Ruth Ha-Cohen as co-adviser (awarded 2013).
2. Dr. Vera Michlin-Shapir, Russian National Identification in the Post-Soviet Era, with Dr. Vera Kaplan as co-adviser (awarded 2018)
3. Dr. Matan Boord, Masculinities and Family life Among Urban Members of the Zionist Labor Movement in Mandate Palestine with Prof. Motti Golani as co-adviser (awarded 2018)
4. Dr. Assaf Mond The Changing Urban Space of Great-War London, 1914-1918 (awarded 2019)
5. Ms. Ella Ayalon, Orphans and Orphanhood in Israel/Palestine 1900-1960 (Current with Prof. Yael Darr as co-adviser)
6. Ms. Ronit Or (current) Between two Camps: The Internment of Enemy Aliens on the isle of Man during World War I.
7. Ms. Michal Amitzur-Gamliel (current) Language and Gender in Psychotherapy of Gender non-conforming People.

            MA Students

1. Mr. Shemaya Levi, The Jews of Bulgaria 1944-1949, (awarded 2003 Magna cum Laude)
2. Mr. Haim Tsarfati, The Evacuation of German POWs from North Africa during WWII, (Awarded, 2007)
3. Mr. Yair Schwartz, Distasteful Pleasures: Parisian Entertainments of the fin-de-siècle, (awarded 2010,Magna Cum Laude).
4. Mr. Alon Posner, British Intelligence in Egypt 1889-1916, (awarded 2011, Summa Cum Laude).
5.  Mr. Assaf Mond, Zeppelinophobia: The Fear and Fascination in face of the Zeppelin Raids on Britain during the First World War, (awarded 2012, Summa cum Laude)
6. Ms. Ella Ayalon, Orphanhood in the Jewish Community in Jerusalem during First World War and Its Aftermath (1914 - 1920), (awarded 2013, Magna cum Laude)
7.  Mr. Gil Engelstein, Once I Was One, Now I Am Many': Life Histories of Transgender Women in Israel, 1948-1986 (awarded 2016 Summa cum Laude).
8.  Ms. Ronit Or, Humanizing the Stranger: Quakers Relief Work for the Assistance of Enemy Aliens in Knockaloe Internment Camp in World War I, (awarded 2016 Summa cum Laude)  
9. Ms. Tali Opatowski, Wearing Identities: Dress and Citizenship in World War II Britain (awarded 2017 Summa cum Laude).
10. Mr Nir Zeid,  From the 'pathological subject' to 'Solidarity among the outcast': Reactions of Homosexuals to the AIDS epidemic, and the identity formation of the gay community in Israel, 1983-1999. (awarded 2018 Summa cum Laude).
11. Ms. Maayan Aner, Gender, Sex and Class Crossings in Sixteenth-Century Spain: The Trial of Eleno de Céspedes (awarded cum Laude, January 2021)
12. Ms Abigail Vollach, The "New Soviet Woman" under Siege: Everyday Life of the Besieged Women of Leningrad 1941-1944 (awarded Summam cum Laude, April 2021).
13. Ms. Ori Manor, The League of Nations and the Refugee Problem: Refugee Rights as Human Rights in the Interwar Period
14. Mr. Yotam Rubin The Abolition of Slavery in Réunion, 1848-1851: Republic vis-à-vis the Plantation Society

1. POWs and the Great War: Captivity on the Eastern Front,  The Legacy of the Great War Series (Oxford and New York: Berg Publishers, 2002) pp. 259. Distributed in the United States by New York University Press. Published both in hardcover and paperback editions. Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History, Section B: For First Major Monograph.
2. "The Disruptive Comforts of Drag: (Trans)Gender Performances among Prisoners of War in Russia, 1914-1920," American Historical Review April 2006, Vol.111.2 (2006), 362-382.
3. Gil Engelstein & Iris Rachamimov Crossing borders and demolishing boundaries: the connected history of the Israeli transgender community 1953–1986, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Vol.18:2 (2019), 142-159.
4. “From Lesbian Radicalism to Trans-Masculine Innovation: The Queer Place of Jerusalem in Israeli LGBT Geographies (1979-2007)”, Geographic Research Forum (GRF), Vol. 39:1 (2019), 19-42.
5. "Small Escapes: Gender, Class, and Material Culture in Great War Internment Camps" in Objects of War: The Material Culture of Conflict and Displacement, eds. Leora Auslander and Tara Zahra, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018), 164-188.
6. Adi Savran and Iris Rachamimov, "In the Folds of the Skirt: The Different Lives of Karl M. Baer" [in Hebrew], Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly 131 (2015), 22-33.
7. "Dinners, Demonstrations, Disilusionment: Lesbian Radicalism in Jerusalem 1972-1989," " [in Hebrew] Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly 131 (2015), 62-71.
8. "Queer History: A History of non-Conforming Gender and Sexual Expression, " [in Hebrew]  Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly 131 (2015), 4-7.  
9. Bürgerliche Historiografie des Ersten Weltkrieges:  'Der große    Krieg' in neuzeitlichen akademischen Darstellungen," Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für  deutsche Geschichte, Vol. 42 (2014).
10. " Camp Domesticity: Shifting Gender Boundaries in WWI Internment Camps." In Gillian C. Carr and H. Mytum (eds.), Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War: Creativity Behind Barbed Wire. (London: Routledge, 2012), 291-305. 
11. .'Er war […], was er darstellte', Geschlechterüberschreitungen in den Internierungslagern des Ersten Weltkriegs", Mein Kamerad - Die Diva: Theater an der Front und in Gefangenenlagern des Ersten Weltkriegs,: Julia B. Köhne, Britta Lange, Anke Vetter (Hg.), ( München: edition text + kritik, 2014), 115-127.
12. "Tempo immobile e trasgressione di genere: Il mondo liminale dei campi di internamento della Grande Guerra "(Frozen Time and Gender Transgression: The Liminal World of WWI Internment Camps)  Genesis
    Rivista della Società Italiana delle Storiche XII/2 2013, 141-170
13. Military Captivity in Two World Wars: Legal Frameworks and Camp Regimes," Cambridge History of War, Volume 4 War and the Modern World, 1850-2005, eds. Roger Chickering, Dennis Showalter, Hans van de Ven (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 214-235.
14.  "Seuils et transgressions: infractions aux norms sociales dans les camps d'internement de la Première Guerre mondiale", La captivité de guerre au XXe siècle - Des archives, des histoires, des mémoires  edited by Anne-Marie Pathé et Fabien Théofilakis. (Paris: Armand Colin, 2012), p.106-117.
15. Normalität als Travestie: Das Theaterleben k.u.k. Kriegsgefangenenoffiziere in Rußland, 1914-1920, Glanz – Gewalt – Gehorsam. Militär und Gesellschaft in der Habsburgermonarchie (1800 bis 1918) eds. Laurence Cole, Martin Scheutz, Christa Hämmerle-Ehrmann,  (Klartext Verlag Essen 2010),  101-126
16.  "ההיסטוריוגרפיה האזרחית של מלחמת העולם הראשונה: 'המלחמה הגדולה' בכתיבה האקדמית העכשווית", היסטוריה: כתב העת של החברה ההיסטורית הישראלית גיליון  33 (2014), גיליון מיוחד על מלחמת העולם הראשונה, 9-34
17. "קסמו המערער של הדראג – תיאטרון חוצה-מגדר במחנות שבויים ברוסיה במלחמת העולם הראשונה " זמנים 98 ( אפריל, 2006)  107-117 
18. My Soul is the Daughter of Shem, Ham and Japheth”: Avigdor Hameiri and the Dilemmas of Identification of Austro-Hungarian Jews, Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook (DIYB)/ Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts (JBDI),  5 (2006): 135–157.
19. "Kollektív önmeghatározás és az osztrák–magyar zsidók. Avigdor Hameiri (1914–1918)," in Hungarian [Collective Identifications and Austro-Hungarian Jewry: Avigdor Hameiri 1914-1918], Múlt és Jövő, 2006:1, 45-61. [Reprinted in A daloló máglya: Ady és a Biblia - Versek, cikkek 1916-ig, 295-345.] 
20. "Collective Identifications and Austro-Hungarian Jews (1914–1918): The Contradictions and Travails of Avigdor Hameiri," in The Limits of Loyalty, edited by Laurence Cole and Daniel Unowsky, , (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007) 178-198. 
21. “’Female Generals’ and ‘Siberian Angels’: Aristocratic Nurses and the Austro-Hungarian POW Relief”, in Gender and Wartime Violence in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe,eds. Nancy Wingfield and Maria Bucur,  (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 23-46
22.  “Arbiters of Allegiance: Austro-Hungarian Censors during World War I,” in Constructing Nationalities in East Central Europe. eds. Pieter Judson and Marsha Rozenblit,   (New York,Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2005), 157-177.
23.   אמנת האג והיחס לשבויי מלחמת העולם הראשונה," היסטוריה: כתב העת של החברה ההיסטורית הישראלית גיליון  14 (2004) עמ'49-91.
24.  'המפץ הגדול' של הלאומיות: מלחמת העולם הראשונה והיווצרות זהויות לאומיות,"  זמנים גיליון 86 (אפריל 2004), עמ' 82-95
25.  “Provinicial Compromises and State Patriotism in fin-de-siècle, Austria-Hungary,” Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für deutsche Geschichte Vol.XXX (2002), pp.116-128.
26.  “Imperial Loyalties and Private Concerns: Nation, Class and State in the Correspondence of Austro-Hungarian POWs in Russia”, Austrian History Yearbook, Vol. 31 (2000), pp.87-105
27.  Alltagssorgen und politische Erwartungen: Eine Analyse von Kriegsgefangenenkorrespondenzen in den Beständen des Österreichischen Staatsarchiv“[Everyday Concerns and Political Expectations: an Analysis of POW Correspondence in the Holdings of the Austrian National Archives], in Zeitgeschichte (Austria), Heft 11/12  1998, pp. 348-356.
28. Diaspora Nationalism’s Pyrrhic Victory: The Controversy Regarding the  Bukovinian Electoral Reform of 1909”, State and Nation Building in East Central Europe: Contemporary Perspectives, ed. John Micgiel, (New York: Columbia University: Institute on East Central Europe, 1996), pp. 1-16.
29. "'היציאה הגדולה מן האוניברסיטה': נשירת סטודנטים באוניברסיטה העברית  (1925-1948)", תולדות האוניברסיטה העברית, כרך ב', עורכת חגית לבסקי. (ירושלים: הוצאת מאגנס תשס"ט) 343-367.