Columbia University Professor of Jewish Literature and American Studies Jeremy A. Dauber will present "Jewish Comedy: A History in Five Jokes"  at 6 p.m. on November 12. Dauber is this year's Pi Lambda Phi Jewish Studies Lecturer and he will be hosted by the WVU Humanities Center. Dauber is an author of several books about Jewish and Yiddish comedy and literature.

Join us at 5 p.m. in the Museum Education Center at the WVU Art Museum for drinks and light refreshments before his talk. This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required, but is encouraged for planning purposes.

Jeremy Dauber is the Mendelson Family Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and director of the Center for American Studies. He is the author of seven non-fiction books: Antonio's Devils: Writers of the Jewish Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literature (Stanford University Press, 2004); In the Demon's Bedroom: Yiddish Literature and the Early Modern (Yale University Press; 2010); The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem (Schocken Books, 2013); Jewish Comedy: A Serious History ( W.W. Norton, 2017); American Comics: A History (W.W. Norton: 2021), Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew (Yale University Press: 2023); and, most recently, American Scary: A History of Horror from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond (Algonquin: 2024). He also publishes novels for children under the name J.A. Dauber; the most recent, Press 1 For Invasion, is just out from Simon&Schuster/Aladdin. Dauber, who is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research, also serves as the university's Atran Professor of Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture and, for a decade, directed the Institute of Israel and Jewish Studies. He frequently lectures on topics related to Jewish literature, history, humor, and both Jewish and American popular culture throughout the world.