Avital Karpman
Associate Clinical Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Director, Hebrew Language Program, Hebrew
Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies
Dr. Avital Karpman is the director of the Hebrew program and has been teaching at UMD since 2007. She received her Ph.D. in Education from York University. Dr. Karpman is the author of Kisharim: A Textbook for Advanced Learners of Hebrew (2014) and Who Does This Language Belong To? Personal Narratives of Language Claim and Identity (2008). Recently, she was awarded an Andrew Mellon grant to develop materials for online teaching of less commonly taught languages (2018-2020) as well as a grant from the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education to research Hebrew teaching in public and charter schools (2018-2019).
Publications
Gender-Inclusive and Nonbinary Hebrew: Innovations and Classroom Applications
Languages are inherently fluid and ever-changing, and by necessity, they transform to meet the needs and sociocultural demands of the moment
Author/Lead: Avital KarpmanHebrew is a strictly gender-binary language, with people and objects receiving a gender label.
Pronouns, nouns, verbs, and adjectives must agree in gender and number.