Literary Series

The Helen Diller Institute’s Fall 2025 Israeli literary series includes a series of talks with Israeli scholars and literary authors exploring complex issues around war and prolonged conflict, including trauma, confinement, boredom, silence, and the crisis of meaning. All three sessions will be hosted by Yael Segalovitz, Helen Diller Institute Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley.

Meet the Host: Professor Yael Segalovitz

Yael Segalovitz a 2025–2026 Helen Diller Institute Visiting Professor in the Comparative Literature Department at UC Berkeley. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley in 2018, where she was a Townsend Center Fellow and a Posen Fellow.

Session I

Boredom, Curiosity, and the Crisis of Meaning

Nana Ariel, writer and scholar at Tel Aviv University, joined Yael Segalovitz for a conversation on the role of boredom in contemporary thought and childhood experience, especially in the context of prolonged confinement, whether due to Covid or life in shelters (in Israel/Gaza/war zones). Based in part on Nana’s children’s book and lectures on boredom, they explored how boredom and curiosity function across different spheres (pedagogy, language, and emotional life), particularly in conditions of uncertainty or crisis.

Nana Ariel, Senior Faculty Member, Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University; Fellow, Ruach Hamakom Center for Public Humanities, Tel Aviv University

Boredom, Curiosity, and the Crisis of Meaning

Session II

DOG: A Conversation with Author Yishay Ron

Wednesday, October 22, 11–12:15 pm PT, Zoom Webinar

Writer Yishay (Ishi) Ron will join Yael Segalovitz for a conversation about his novel, DOG. They will also be joined by Yardenne Greenspan, the novel’s translator from Hebrew to English. Together they will explore the themes of the novel — trauma, addiction, and the long road toward healing — including the role of writing in the healing journey. They will also delve into questions of translation and the layers of meaning and complexity that translation elicits. DOG has been long-listed for the Sapir Prize and is now in development as a feature film by Eran Riklis.

Yishay (Ishi) Ron, Israeli author of DOG (long-listed for the Sapir Prize), Holiday Apocalypse (a Geffen Award nominee), and Vincent’s Nose (a children’s book adapted into an award-winning play)

Yardenne Greenspan, Tel Aviv–born writer and translator; published work in Tablet, Literary Hub, and Haaretz

Session III

A Dictionary of Lost Words: Creative Writing and Relocating Language During/After War

Wednesday, November 19, 12:30–2 pm PT, Berkeley Law Building

Ron Ben-Tovim (Ben-Gurion University) will join Yael Segalovitz for a conversation about writing about war during war. They will explore the role writing can have in navigating the abrupt, difficult, and frequent transitions between war and civilian life, and the ways writing can give voice to otherwise silent and silenced experiences.

Ron Ben-Tovim, Senior Lecturer, Department of Foreign Literatures & Linguistics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Topics

2025–2026 Series topic page