Books published by Pennsylvania State University Press

A reappraisal of the early cultural history of the Bactrian camel and the dromedary based on archaeology, iconography, inscriptions, and other text sources. Critically evaluates the various camel references in the Hebrew Bible and in the Gospels.

An exploration of the complexities of the human brain in graphic novel format.

Examines Europe's discovery of ancient Iran, first in philology and then in art history, and explores the Persian Revival movement in light of imperial strategies of power, selfhood, and statehood in British India and Zand-Qajar-Pahlavi Iran.

Examines the intersection of private art collecting, domestic social life, and recreational practices in Renaissance Venice.

A collection of essays delineating the centuries-long dialogue of Jews and Jewish culture with China, all under the overarching theme of cultural translation.

Examines Jewish surnames in Romanian-speaking lands from the sixteenth century until 1944, exploring how the names reflect Jews' interactions with their surroundings. Uses onomastic methodology to substantiate and complement historical research.

Examines a series of linked case studies that not only highlight moments of seeming disconnect between seeing and believing, including hoaxes, miracles, spirit paintings, manipulated photographs, and holograms, but also offer a sensory history of ways of seeing.

Revisits the theme of alienation in modernist literature, finding an alternative aesthetic centered on the experience of double exile. Explores examples drawn from the cultural groupings of the New Negro movement, Parisian expatriates in the 1920s, and the queer expatriate scene in Los Angeles before Stonewall.