Amos Morris-Reich is a history professor at Tel Aviv University whose research involves the intersection of modern Jewish history and the history of modern science and technology.[1]

Amos Morris-Reich
OccupationProfessor
Academic background
Alma materHebrew University of Jerusalem
ThesisDisciplinary Paradigms and Jewish Assimilation: The Jews as Objects of Research
Doctoral advisorSander Gilman, Eli Lederhendler, Gabriel Motzkin
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Sub-disciplineModern Jewish history, History of science and technology

Works edit

The Quest for Jewish Assimilation in Modern Social Science edit

In his 2012 book The Quest for Jewish Assimilation in Modern Social Science,[2] Morris-Reich explores the connections between academic disciplines and notions of Jewish assimilation which, implicitly, pointed to the future trajectory of the Jewish minority in modern societies. Focusing on two influential "assimilated" Jewish authors—anthropologist Franz Boas and sociologist Georg Simmel—this comparative study intends to show that the respective epistemological and ontological assumptions, considerations, and expectations of anthropology and sociology underlie the respective evaluations of the Jews' assimilation outcome in German and American societies as a form of "group extinction" in anthropology or as a form of "in-between situation" in sociology.

Race and Photography edit

In his 2016 book Race and Photography: Racial Photography as Scientific Evidence, 1876–1980[3] Morris-Reich attempts to return photography and photographic techniques and methods used in the study of race in a variety of scientific fields and disciplines back into the history of science. Approaching the history of scientific racial photography from an historical epistemology point of view, as forms of scientific evidence, Morris-Reich examines numerous scientists and scholars who developed or made use of photographic methods and techniques for the study of race. His reconstruction of individual cases, conceptual genealogies, and emergent patterns points to the diversity of and transformations in photography's scientific status from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, through the Weimar and Nazi periods and beyond, from physical anthropology to phenomenology.

Photography and Jewish History edit

Morris-Reich's 2022 book Photography and Jewish History: Five Twentieth Century Cases[4] turns to five twentieth-century cases in which photography and Jewish history intersect: Albert Kahn's utopian attempt to establish a photographic archive in Paris in order to advance world peace; the failed project of Helmar Lerski, a prominent photographer in Mandatory Palestine, on "Jewish and Arab types"; photography in the career of Eugen Fischer, a Nazi professor of genetics; the street photography of Robert Frank; and Solomon Yudovin's photographs in S. Ansky's attempt to introduce photography into the study of Russian Jewry prior to World War I, as seen from the post-Holocaust perspective of the early twenty-first century. The book attempts to move discussion of the photography and Jewish history nexus from Jewish visibility and photographers to the political categories and registers of twentieth-century Jewish history.

Other works edit

Morris-Reich has co-edited with Dirk Rupnow, for Ideas of "Race" in the History of the Humanities[5] and with Margaret Olin, for Photography and Imagination.[6] He edited the first collection of essays by Georg Simmel in Hebrew: Georg Simmel: "How is Society Possible?" and Other Essays[7] and the first collection of essays by Sander Gilman in Hebrew: The Jewish Body and Other Protruding Organs: A Selection of Essays by Sander Gilman.[8]  

With a special interest in the history of methodology and epistemology, Morris-Reich has also published numerous articles on the conceptual history of the social sciences, history of antisemitism and racism, Jewish cultural history, history of photography, and biologically oriented human sciences. At the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of the Science and Ideas his teaching and supervision focus on the history and philosophy of the social and human sciences, history and philosophy of photography and technology, and historical contingency and counterfactuals.

References edit

  1. ^ "Prof. Amos Morris-Reich". Tel Aviv University. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  2. ^ Morris-Reich, Amos (2012-03-14). The Quest for Jewish Assimilation in Modern Social Science. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415540735. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  3. ^ Morris-Reich, Amos (2016-01-11). Race and Photography: Racial Photography as Scientific Evidence, 1876-1980. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226320915.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-226-32091-5.
  4. ^ Morris-Reich, Amos (2022-06-21). Photography and Jewish History. University of Pennsylvania Press. doi:10.9783/9780812298529. ISBN 978-0-8122-9852-9.
  5. ^ Morris-Reich, Amos; Rupnow, Dirk, eds. (2017-04-26). Ideas of 'Race' in the History of the Humanities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49953-6. ISBN 978-3-319-49952-9.
  6. ^ Morris-Reich, Amos; Olin, Margaret Rose, eds. (2019-10-08). Photography and Imagination. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780429457005.
  7. ^ "כיצד תיתכן חברה : ומאמרים נוספים / גיאורג זימל ; מגרמנית - מרים קראוס ; עריכה מדעית - עמוס מוריס-רייך ; [עריכת תרגום ועריכה לשונית - שגיא מעין] | זימל, גאורג, 1858-1918 (קראוס, מרים | קראוס, מרים ;מוריס-רייך, עמוס | הספרייה הלאומית" [How is society possible: and other articles / Georg Simmel; From German - Miriam Kraus; Scientific editing - Amos Morris-Reich; [Editing translation and linguistic editing - an error of sorts] | Simmel, Georg, 1858-1918 (Kraus, Miriam | Kraus, Miriam; Morris-Reich, Amos]. National Library of Israel (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  8. ^ "הגוף היהודי ואיברים בולטים אחרים : מבחר מאמרים / סנדר ל' גילמן ; עורך מדעי - ד"ר עמוס מוריס-רייך ; תרגום מאנגלית - גיא אלגת ; עריכת לשון: מורג סגל | גילמן, סנדר ל., 1944- מחבר (מוריס-רייך, עמוס (מחבר הקדמה) | מוריס-רייך, עמוס (מחבר הקדמה) ;אלגת, גיא (מתרגם) | הספרייה הלאומית" [The Jewish body and other prominent organs: a selection of articles / Sander L. Gilman; Scientific editor - Dr. Amos Morris-Reich; translation from English - Guy Elgat; language editing: Morg Segal | Gilman, Sander L., 1944- author | Morris-Reich, Amos (author of the introduction); Elgat, Guy (translator)]. National Library of Israel (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-07-20.