March is Women's History Month and we'll be featuring our female history faculty via a short Q&A. Professor Hathaway starts us off:

Jane Hathaway, Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor 

What is your favorite class to teach? Why?

Probably History 3351, “Intellectual and Social Movements in the Muslim World.” I created this course years ago. It is a thematic course that explores various movements from the origins of Islam ca. 610 C.E. through today. I tweak the content every time I teach it, according to what is in the news and what should be in the news but is not. Usually there is something that every student can hook on to.

Tell us about your current research.

I have just launched a project on the Ottoman-era documents in the Cairo Geniza, a collection of documents of all conceivable kinds from Cairo’s Jewish community. While the medieval material (ca. 10th-early 13th centuries C.E.) has been well-studied, the Ottoman-era corpus remains virtually untouched.

What current research in your field excites you? Who is doing that research?

This research on the Ottoman-era Geniza excites me. The scholar who has done the most work on it is Prof. Dotan Arad of Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He and scholars of the medieval Geniza have been incredibly encouraging and supportive of my work. There is a camaraderie and excitement in the field that is unlike anything I’ve experienced before.

What’s a fun fact about you that we might not know?

I am a cat fanatic.

What do you do for entertainment in your “down time” (during COVID or non-COVID)?

I’m an opera-lover, so during the pandemic, I’ve been watching a lot of opera streams. I recently discovered the podcast “Screaming Divas” on You Tube, which I highly recommend.

Find out more about Professor Hathaway here.