��������

Mikhal Dekel, the noted City College of New York academic and award-winning author, is now a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English at CCNY. Her appointment, by the City University of New York Board of Trustees, cites her “internationally renowned career, scholarship and teaching of the highest caliber.”

The Stuart Z. Katz Professor in the Humanities & the Arts at City College and current chair of the English Department, Dekel is an internationally recognized scholar of comparative literature (with a focus on 20th century English and Hebrew), Jewish studies and cultural history. 

She’s also the author of three highly acclaimed books including the best-selling “,” the finalist in numerous awards among them the 2020 Sami Rohr Prize for Contributions to Jewish Literature, the Chautauqua Institution Prize for Significant Contribution to the Literary Arts and the 2019 National Jewish Book Awards for Writing Based on Archival Material and Literature.

Hugely popular, “Tehran Children” was featured in the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, and many other publications and media outlets., including the BBC, C-Span and NPR. An expanded paperback edition of “Tehran Children” was published in Dec. 2021 with the title “.” The German-language edition, “,” was published in April 2021, with a Hebrew translation scheduled for publication in Sept. 2022.  . The book has earned Dekel invitations to deliver more than 60 talks since its publication. 

Dekel’s first two books, “,” and “,” respectively, established her as a leading scholar in gender and cultural studies with a focus on Jewish studies. 

Her scholarship and teaching have earned her a National Foundation for the Humanities Faculty Research Fellowship, and a Lady Davis Fellowship from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  

Dekel joined City College’s professorial ranks as an assistant professor in 2005, was promoted to associate professor in 2010 and to full professor in 2015. She’s served as the Director of CCNY’s Rifkind Center for the Humanities and the Arts since 2016.

Dekel earned an MA in English Literature from CCNY and her PhD in Comparative Literature, with distinction, from Columbia University. She also holds a BA in Law from Tel Aviv University’s Buchman School of Law.

About the City College of New York
Since 1847, �������� has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.