Talia S. Katz

Research

Talia’s doctoral dissertation examines the development of psychodrama and drama therapy in Israel to engage questions at the nexus of trauma, langauge and subjectivity. Her work asks how the psychological sciences experiment with art under the pressures of catastrophic violence, war, and displacement. She deploys both ethnographic and archival research methods. Her work has been generously supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the US Department of Education, the Society for Psychological Anthropology, and the American Ethnological Society. Internally at Johns Hopkins, her research has been supported by the Stulman Program in Jewish Studies, the Mellon Grant, and the Program in Medicine, Science, and Humanities.

Writing

Talia’s publications span disciplinary borders and include collaborations with mental health clinicians.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL WRITING
“Healing without Monsters: On Psychodrama and Therapeutic Experimentation in Israel.” American Ethnologist website, 14 January 2021.

ACADEMIC BOOK REVIEWS
Review of The Doctor and Mrs. A.: Ethics and Counter-Ethics in an Indian Dream Analysis by Sarah Pinto. Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology 10. June 2021.

COLLABORATIONS WITH CLINICIANS
Atsmon, Amir, Talia Katz, and Susana Pendzik. 2022.“‘Migrated onto the Screen’: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Clinical Practice of Drama Therapy.”The Arts in Psychotherapy 79 (July): 101913.

Teaching

Talia’s doctoral training at Johns Hopkins has included extensive guidance on both online and in-person teaching methods. Furthermore, her pedagogy draws from her own knowledge of psychodramtic methods to 1) foster collaborative group dynamics and 2) help her students develop close-reading skills and connect with affective registers of academic texts.

Courses Taught at Johns Hopkins:

Primary Instructor:
- Responding to Pain: Ethics and Aesthetics During the COVID-19 Pandemic (1 Credit course for first year students)

Teaching Assistant:
- Conflict and Security in a Global World (Dr. Veena Das)Co-designed unit in which students used drama therapy techniques to explore the affective registers of texts on war and empire
- Invitation to Anthropology (Dr. Alessandro Angelini)
- Trauma: Institutions, Violence, and Everyday Life (Dr. Clara Han)

Another

Talia is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at The Johns Hopkins University, where she is also a Graduate Student Fellow in the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine. Her research engages themes at the nexus of trauma, violence, language, and subjectivity. Since September 2022, Talia has lectured as a Visiting Research Fellow at Tel Hai College, Upper Galilee, Israel. Talia holds a BA in Anthropology Magna Cum Laude with distinction from Yale University. She lives between Baltimore, USA and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Contact

Talia may be reached at tkatz1 (at) jhu.edu; she welcomes inquiries regarding her research and teaching.

Additionally, Talia holds a certificate in Hebrew to English translation from Johns Hopkins University. She is available for translation and editing projects.

Elements

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