Portrait headshot of a person with long wavy dark hair and round glasses, wearing a red top, standing outdoors on a sunny day with a blurred campus lawn and building in the background.

Marisa Natale

Arnold Family Postdoctoral Fellow in Israel and Jewish Studies

Education
PhD in History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2026
MA in History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020
BA in History, Clark University, 2017

Research Interest
Marisa Natale is a historian of childhood, gender, law, and the colonial carceral state during the Palestine Mandate. Her work examines the family as a site of regulation, surveillance, and transformation effected through carceral institutions, including criminal courts, reformatory schools, and the child welfare system. In her manuscript, she challenges traditional methods for studying family history in the MENA, and argues that racialized and gendered logics of child protection structured British imperial authority over infantilized colonial subjects during the Mandate.

Courses Taught
  • JWST 210.01: Jewish History, Ancient to Modern
  • JWST 300.04: Gender and Sexuality in Israel/Palestine

Honors & Awards
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, US Department of Education, 2023