Oona Eisenstadt

Fred Krinsky Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religious Studies; Chair of Religious Studies
With Pomona Since: 2004
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Oona Eisenstadt specializes in continental philosophy and Judaism, with a special interest in two postmodern Jewish philosophers—Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. She has also focused extensively on religious themes in literature for children and young adults.

    Research Interests

    • Levinas
    • Derrida
    • Rosenzweig
    • Plato
    • Adorno
    • The Holocaust
    • Religion and politics
    • Religion and literature
    • Utopianism
    • Globalization
    • Shamanism
    • Opera
    • Poetry

    Areas of Expertise

    PHILOSOPHY

    • Contemporary Continental Philosophy
    • Modern Jewish Philosophy

    RELIGION

    • Judaism and Political Theory

    CHILDREN

    • Children's Literature
  • Work

    Work

    Driven Back to the Text: The Premodern Sources of Levinas’s Postmodernism (Duquesne University Press, 2001)

    "Preferring or not Preferring: Derrida on Bartleby as Kierkegaard’s Abraham," in Derrida’s Bible (Y. Sherwood, ed., Palgrave, 2004)

    "The Problem of the Promise: Derrida on Levinas on the Cities of Refuge," Crosscurrents, 52/4, 474-482, 2003

    "Making Room for the Hebrew: Luther, Dialectics, and the Shoah," The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 69/3, 551-575, 2001

    "Shame in the Apology," in Politics, Philosophy, Writing: Plato’s Art of Caring for Souls (Z. Planinc, ed., Missouri University Press, 2001)

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D.
    McMaster University

    Bachelor of Arts
    McMaster University

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Benjamin, Levinas, Derrida
    • Independent Study: Religious Studies
    • Modern Jewish Philosophy
    • Summer Reading & Research
    • The Modern Jewish Experience
    • Critical Inquiry Seminar
  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Hebrew University (Jerusalem), Lady Davis Fellowship, 2002-2003

    University of Toronto, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Political Science, 2000-2002