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Julia Bucharov
Year of Graduation: 2019
Current Position: Head of Knowledge Base Localization at Wix.
The program most definitely had a significant impact on my career for a few reasons. First of all, being a non-native English speaker, it helped me hone my English writing skills and gain more confidence and control over my narrative in this language. Along with that, while studying literary texts, I developed analytical and reasoning skills that later proved invaluable in my day-to-day work. Not to mention, critical thinking skills, which I find to be one of the key skills to train and acquire in today’s overflow of information.
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Camelia Darawshe
Year of Graduation: 2019
Current Position: Diversity Officer, the Equity, Diversity and Community Commission, Tel Aviv University
Studying at the department was a challenging yet fascinating experience that significantly contributed to my personal and intellectual growth. The learning journey traversed diverse worlds, cultures, and pivotal historical scenarios. The department's faculty members, with their professionalism and continuous support during challenging times, made me fall in love with literature. I learned to read between the lines, while also acquiring critical tools.
The linguistic knowledge I acquired opened doors for me to work as a research assistant at a campus research institute focused on Jewish-Arab relations and minority groups. Over three years, I immersed myself in extensive reading and actively participated in writing articles in English. Today, I hold the position of Institutional Diversity Officer at Tel Aviv University. The fluency I acquired has enabled me to take part in conferences worldwide. Additionally, I am actively involved in a program led by an international philanthropic organization. This program aims to shed light on the challenges faced by Palestinian citizens and Arab-Jewish relations in Israel, presenting these insights to American Jewish communities in the U.S.
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Ido Keren
Year of Graduation: 2016
Current Position: Ph.D. candidate, Stanford University
I absolutely loved and enjoyed my time at the English Department at Tel-Aviv University, both as a BA and MA student. I found there a nourishing community with high academic standards and gained a strong intellectual foundation that continues to shape and drive my academic journey. With the immense support I received from the faculty and my fellow students, I was able to apply successfully to the graduate program in English at Stanford University. Today, I am living in Oakland, California, where I am writing my doctoral dissertation on the Romantic novel. At Stanford, I am benefitting from the opportunities to collaborate with leading scholars, access diverse research resources, and fully embrace the vibrant academic culture that the US offers.
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Maya Hollander
Year of Graduation: 2021
Current Position: DPhil student, University of Oxford
The English Department at TAU is an incredibly welcoming environment, large enough to offer a broad selection of courses, but small enough to feel like home. Outside my studies, I had plenty of opportunities to get involved: I edited the department’s student-run literary magazine and submitted my work to the annual creative and academic writing competitions. Developing my writing and research skills as part of the program allowed me to take on a role as a User Experience Writer in a high-tech company, and later to be accepted to a master’s degree in English at Cambridge. From there, I progressed to doctoral studies at Oxford, where I'm still researching a topic that I first came across during a seminar at TAU. The faculty has been wonderfully supportive along the way, empowering me to do my best work throughout this journey.
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Yonatan Englender
Year of graduation: 2017
Current position: Culture Desk Coordinator, Haaretz
One of the first things one learns in any humanities program is that there are texts all around us – books, films, ads, pamphlets, signs, and the words in any phone and laptop screen. In my three years in the English Department, I learned how to read them, in the deepest sense of the term: analyze, comprehend, question, cast doubt. It is a knowledge I took with me and still use daily, when watching the news, reading a book or simply living my daily life in a culture characterized by a constant flow of information. It is also extremely useful in my professional life as an editor in a major newspaper. And this is without mentioning the treasure trove of wonderful authors and books I had the pleasure of familiarizing myself with: Yeats, Carlos Williams, Malamud, Faulkner, Bronte and many more.
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Noa Jacobson
Year of Graduation: 2018
Current Position: Program Officer at a philanthropic organization.
I recommend majoring in English at TAU not just because it is a very interesting subject that exposed me to world history as well as to important literature, it also improved my English skills exponentially. Having a high level of English is imperative for obtaining high paying jobs in many industries like business, high tech, medicine, journalism, and many others. Majoring in English at TAU also helped me think critically about global and local politics and economy. At my current job as a program officer at a big philanthropic foundation, I constantly speak in English with my colleagues and our grantees. My acquired skills allow me to meaningfully engage in important decision making, shape our philanthropic giving strategy and take part in conversations with key US and Israeli leaders and organizations that we collaborate with.
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Ron Hatsor
Year of graduation: 2021
Current position: Junior high and high school English teacher, homeroom teacher.
The BA in English at TAU developed my English skills and acquainted me with canonical literary works. As an English teacher, I often use my knowledge of American and British literature and cultural history to help me create a richer and more engaging learning experience for my students. I also have a better understanding of academic writing, allowing me to direct my students to be better prepared for their final exams and future academic life in whichever field they choose. I really enjoyed the broad spectrum of literary works and fields I had the chance to learn from the department's brilliant professors. I have learned a lot from their teaching styles and I am applying some of that knowledge in my teaching. I particularly enjoyed exploring American Modernism and Cold War literature, as well as the Introduction to Theory course.
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Leehu Sigler
Year of Graduation: 2018
Current Position: Video Game Developer (at an independent game studio in Paris).
When I left the TAU English Department in 2018, I thought, like many other students I’ve spoken to since, that I would continue the well-defined path toward an academic profession in the field. I held high grades, and I was lucky to have Professor Noam Reisner as my supervisor, who pushed me to excel. During my last year, I worked hard to apply for Master's Degree programs in Canada. I ended up receiving an offer from the McGill English Department, and I was thrilled. Having spent two years studying and working in Montreal and completing the requirements for the MA program, I directly applied to the PhD program. I was accepted! But a lot had changed since 2018, and I ultimately declined the offer. Today, I live in France with my partner, where I have spent the last two years teaching myself French and various information-technology-related skills, from cybersecurity to programming. Next month, I will start my first full-time employment as a game developer at an independent game studio here in Paris.
If I could go back and do it all over, I would take the exact same path. I feel incredibly lucky to have studied under such wonderful professors at TAU and to have benefitted from the fruits of the discipline.
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Naomi Michalowicz
Year of Graduation: 2014
Current position: Lecturer in Discipline, English Department, Columbia University
I decided to go for a degree in English literature because I wanted to strengthen my language abilities through reading and writing. I wasn't particularly interested in literary criticism, thinking it must be a dry and boring exercise. Very quickly, thanks to the classes I took in my first and second year, I came to recognize the intellectual challenge and creativity that drive interpretation, and fell in love with the practice. The program in the English and American Studies department provided me with a foundation of knowledge and a set of skills––close reading, persuasive writing––that helped me get into graduate school and ultimately earn my PhD from Columbia.
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