Doctor Helen Beer
Nationality: Australia
Year: 1990
Subject Area: Arts and Humanities
I received a Wingate Scholarship to prepare a book on the ballads of the Yiddish poet Itzik Manger (1901-69) within the framework of studying for a D.Phil. at the Univ. of Oxford.
Arriving in Oxford from the Scottish Highlands, I was asked to teach for the Oxford Summer Yiddish Course which I did for 8 summers. I taught Yiddish for the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies for 4 years. I am now (since 1999) Lecturer in Yiddish in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCL.
Since 'the Wingate', I have lectured and taught in numerous countries, am director of an annual Yiddish summer course in London, produced a full-length Yiddish drama at the Bloomsbury Theatre (2002) and a Yiddish CD with jazz musicians(www.itzikmanger.com). I have published articles on Manger and his ballads. The aforementioned book has not yet materialised but it will. In July 2007, I was a recipient of the first UCL Provost's Teaching Awards. None of this would have happened without the Wingate!