BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:talks.ox.ac.uk BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Jewish Women’s Voices Seminar: Susan Kahn\, 'Canine Pioneer: The Extraordinary Life of Rudolphina Menzel' - Prof Susan Kahn (Harvard) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251111T140000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251111T153000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e21214d6-3456-4cc9-ac15-8b439a7649ec/ DESCRIPTION:In this seminar\, Susan Kahn draws upon her acclaimed biograph y\, Canine Pioneer: The Extraordinary Life of Rudolphina Menzel\, to discu ss the long and complex life and legacy of Rudolphina Menzel (née Waltuch \, 1891-1973).\n\nKahn’s is the first biography of Rudolphina Menzel\, a Viennese-born Jewish scientist. Menzel’s pioneering research on canine psychology\, development\, and behaviour fundamentally shaped the ways dog s came to be trained\, cared for\, and understood. Her research had far‑ reaching impacts not only on German police and military dog‑training tac tics\, but also on the Zionist project.\n\nAbout Rudolphina Menzel:\n\nBet ween the world wars\, Menzel was known all over Europe as one of the forem ost researchers on canine cognition as well as among the most famous breed ers and trainers of police dogs. Throughout the 1920s and until the Nazis seized power in 1933\, she was a sought-after consultant at Kummersdorf\, the German military dog training institute near Berlin.\n\nMenzel was also a devout Zionist who worked tirelessly to convince the leaders of the Yis huv that dogs could help build and protect the nascent Jewish state. In fa ct\, teaching Jews to like dogs and training dogs to serve Jews became Men zel's unique kind of Zionist mission.\n\nIn 1938\, Menzel escaped Nazi-occ upied Austria and moved to Palestine\, where she launched a series of ambi tious canine initiatives: she published the first dog-training manual in H ebrew\, founded the Palestine Kennel Club\, established the Palestine Rese arch Institute for Canine Psychology and Training\, and organised dog hand ling courses for the Haganah\; hundreds of her trained dogs served alongsi de Jewish forces in the 1948 war\, detecting mines\, carrying messages\, a nd pursuing enemies. In the 1950s\, she created the first guide-dog instit ute in the Middle East and invented Israel’s national dog breed\, the Ca naan dog. In 1962 at the age of 71\, she was appointed associate professor of animal psychology at Tel Aviv University.\n\nSpeaker Details:\n\nSusan Kahn is Associate Director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School. She received a PhD in Anthropology and a master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. Fro m 2003-2015\, she served as Associate Director of the Centre for Middle Ea stern Studies at Harvard\, Director of the Master’s Program in Middle Ea stern Studies\, and Lecturer in Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations\; she received 14 Certificates of Excellence and Distinction in Teaching an d was nominated for the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award. Her latest book\, Canine Pioneer: The Extraordinary Life of Rudolphina Me nzel\, was published by Brandeis University Press in 2022. Her previous bo ok Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel ( Duke 2000) won a National Jewish Book Award\, the Eileen Basker Prize for Outstanding Research in Gender and Health from the American Anthropologica l Association\, and the Musher Publication Prize\, awarded biennially by t he National Foundation for Jewish Culture for the outstanding dissertation on Jewish life in Israel or America. She teaches a course on “The Histo ry of the Jewish People” at Harvard Extension School.\n\nAbout the Progr amme:\n\nJewish Women's Voices is a collaborative initiative by Dr Kate Ke nnedy\, Director of the ‘Oxford Centre for Life-Writing’\, and Dr Vera Fine-Grodzinski\, a scholar of Jewish social and cultural history.\n\nThe Programme is the first of its kind at any UK academic institution. Launch ed in October 2023\, the Programme celebrates the life-writing of Jewish w omen often underrepresented in mainstream history accounts. The Programme is a three-term seminar series dedicated to exploring the diverse experien ces of Jewish women across centuries\, countries\, and cultures. Further i nformation about the Programme can be found here. \n\nFurther Details and Contacts:\n\nThis hybrid event is free and open to all. Registration is re commended for in-person attendance and required for hybrid attendance.\n\n The seminar will be recorded and made available on the OCLW website soon a fter. Registration is not required to access the recording.\n\nRegistratio n will close at 10:30 on 11 November 2025.\n\nAny queries regarding this e vent should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager\, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.\n Speakers:\nProf Susan Kahn (Harvard) LOCATION:The Leonard Wolfson Auditorium and via Zoom\; accessibility infor mation available here: https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/accessibility-wolfson- college TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/e21214d6-3456-4cc9-ac15-8b439a7649ec/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Jewish Women’s Voices Seminar: Susan Kahn\, 'Canine Pio neer: The Extraordinary Life of Rudolphina Menzel' - Prof Susan Kahn (Harv ard) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR