Education
October 2015 - present:
PhD candidate, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, History Faculty.
Title: “Everyday Life, Identity, and Communal Relations: A Comparison of Kehilot Shum and Aragon, 1100-1347.”
Advisor: Elisheva Baumgarten (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
September 2013 - June 2014:
MPhil in Legal Theory and Philosophy of Religion, Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge
September 2012 - May 2013:
Fellow and Education Fellow at Yeshivat Hadar
August 2011 - June 2012:
Henry Fellow at Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
October 2008 – July 2011:
BA (Hons) Historical Tripos, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge
Everyday Life, Identity, and Communal Relations: A Comparison of Kehilot Shum and Aragon, 1100-1347
Miriam Fenton is writing her PhD in Medieval history, comparing and contrasting the experience of community in the everyday life of Jews in Aragon and Kehilot Shum, 1100-1347. She aims to use social history and social theory to investigate oft-overlooked halakhic issues that belie the realities of Jewish communal life.
Conference Presentations
‘The invisible boundaries of communal identity: how yiḥud shapes everyday life at home and on the road.’ Presented at The World Congress of Jewish Studies 2017 (August, 2017).
‘Rabbinic social thought meets medieval migration: reading responsa literature as a bridge between social thought and everyday life.’ Presented at ‘Jews on the Move: Exploring the movement of Jews, objects, texts, and ideas in space and time’ British Association of Jewish Studies Annual Conference 2017 (July 2017).
Publications
Hasdai Crescas, Grounds for assertions about God and the philosophical use of scripture.
Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 15 (2016).
A dedicatory letter and its context: Beinecke MS 115
Yale Law School Library Journal (2012).
