Brandon Katzir, Ph.D

Biography

Brandon Katzir is the systems administrator of the University of Rhode Island libraries, where he oversees the design, maintenance, and evolution of the library’s core technology infrastructure. His work spans integrated library systems (including Alma and Primo), digital archives, identity and access management via Azure and Intune, and the automation of library workflows through API integrations and custom scripting.

He brings a dual perspective to library technology: a Ph.D in English informs his commitment to scholarly communication and the intellectual missions of academic libraries, while his advanced technical training enables him to build resilient, scalable systems that support research, teaching, and learning.

Brandon is also the co-creator of the Victorian Jewish Writers Project, a digital collection focusing on the digitization and preservation Anglo-Jewish writing from the long nineteenth century.

Research

Nineteenth-century literature and culture; Jewish studies; history of the English language; Yiddish language and literature

Education

Ph.D, English (2017)
MSIS (2022)
M.A., English (2013)
B.A., English (2010)

Selected Publications

Selected articles

“Jesuitical and Talmudic: A Note on Logical Subtleties,” Notes & Queries, 73, no. 1. (2026): 73-74. 

Katzir, Brandon and Lindsay Katzir. “Tracing Social Connections in the Victorian Jewish Writers Project,” Literature Compass, 21. (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12741

“Whose English: The Role of Rhetoric in Victorian Style Guides,” Rhetorica 40 (2022): 297-321. DOI: 10.1525/RH.2022.40.3.297. 

“Walking the Even Tenor of Our Ways: Liberty and Tradition in Isaac Leeser’s 1841 Claims of the Jews to an Equality of Rights,” Jewish History 35 (2021): 135-151. DOI: 10.1007/S108350021-09418-Y.

“Against the Philosophers: Writing and Identity in the Medieval Mediterranean World,” Philosophy & Rhetoric 52 (2019): 366-383. DOI: 10.5325/PHILRHET.52.4.0366. 

“Paths of Virtue: Legal Rhetorics in Judaism and Islam,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 48 (2018): 1-21. DOI: 10.1080/02773945.2017.1320727. 

“The Truth of Reliable Tradition: Saadya Gaon, Arabic Rhetoric, and the Challenge to Rhetorical Historiography,” Rhetorica 35 (2017): 161-188. DOI: 10.1525/RH.2017.35.2.161.

 

Selected book chapters

“Contested Hearts and Fractured Homes: Victorian Women Travelers in the Nineteenth-Century Islamic World,” forthcoming in Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Women Writers and Religious Identity, University of Edinburgh Press, 2027.

Katzir, Lindsay and Brandon Katzir. “A Brotherhood of Wolves: Loyalty in Yiddish and Anglo-Jewish Folktales,” in Animals and their Children in Victorian Culture, eds. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier. 2020.

 

Reference entries

“Germinal: Organ of the World Anarchist Organization” [Yiddish], Encyclopedia of London’s East End. McFarland, 2023.

“Friends of Yiddish” [Yiddish], Encyclopedia of London’s East End. McFarland, 2023.

“Sandy’s Row Synagogue,” Encyclopedia of London’s East End. McFarland, 2023.

“Classical and Medieval Jewish Rhetoric,” Diversifying Teaching Series, American Society for the History of Rhetoric, 2020: https://ashr.org/teaching-resources/diversifying-teaching/classical-and-medieval-jewish-rhetoric/.

 

Papers presented, panels chaired

“Revelation in Translation: Poetics and the Spiritual Imagination from Sale to Tennyson,” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Association, Washington, D.C., July 2026. 

“From New York to Warsaw: Victorian Afterlives in Yiddish,” National Victorian Studies Association, Boston, April 2025.

“Psalms and Sedan Chairs: Abigail Lindo’s Hebrew-English Dictionary,” British Women Writers Conference, Boulder, Colorado, May 2024.

“Digitizing Victorian Jewry,” North American Victorian Studies Association, Vancouver, March 2022. 

“Victorian Jews in the Digital Age,” Western Jewish Studies Association, Norman, Oklahoma, March 2022. 

“Never Will We Forsake the Covenant: Isaac Leeser’s 1841 Apologia to American Jews in the Philadelphia Gazette,” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Association Conference, Dallas, March 21-24, 2019. 

“From Ind to Zion: Figures of the Jew in Melville’s Clarel,” South Central Modern Language Association, San Antonio, October 11-13, 2018. 

New Directions in the History of Rhetoric [Panel Chair], American Society for the History of Rhetoric, National Communication Association, Dallas, November 16-19, 2017. 

“Proof form a Carob Tree: Juristic Rhetorics in Sharia and Halakha,” International Society for the History of Rhetoric, London, July 24-27, 2017. 

Beyond the Praedicandi: Khutab, Drashot, and the Rhetorical Tradition of Medieval Islamic and Jewish Preaching,” Rhetoric Society of America, Atlanta, May 27-29, 2016. 

“Ilm al-Kalam: Theology and Rhetoric in Medieval Judeo-Muslim Culture,” Difference in Resemblance: Judeo-Islamic Encounters in Literature and Culture,” Modern Language Association, Austin, January 7-10, 2016. 

“You Make Known to Me the Path of Life: Navigating the Jewish Rhetorics of Saadia Gaon’s Book of Doctrines and Beliefs.” Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric, Ottawa, June 3-5, 2015. 

O Ye, My Frendes: Epideictic Rhetoric and Communal Virtue in Philosophiae Consolationis and Chaucer’s Boece, American Society for the History of Rhetoric, National Communication Association, Chicago, November 19-23, 2014.

 

Invited external talks

“Purge and Protect: Using Python & Go for Alma Management,” ExLibris Developers Day, Los Angeles, April 27-28, 2026. 

“Using the ORCID, Sherpa Romeo, and Unpaywall APIs in R to Harvest Institutional Data,” Force11 Scholarly Communications Institute, August 1-3, 2023. 

“Using the ORCID, Sherpa Romeo, and Unpaywall APIs in R to Harvest Institutional Data,” Force11 Scholarly Communications Institute, July 26-28, 2022.

The Chosen, Let’s Talk About It Oklahoma Lecture Series, Mustang Public Library, Mustang, OK, September 10, 2019. 

“Figures of the Jews in Melville’s Clarel,” Judaic and Israel Studies Lecture Series, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, December 5, 2018. 

Nadine Gordimer, Let’s Talk About It Oklahoma Lecture Series, Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK, October 23, 2018.

“Land and Language: The Hebrew Revival,” Passport to Israel Lecture Series, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK, September 5, 2018.

 

Technical skills

 

Programming & scripting

  • Python
  • Javascript/Typescript
  • Bash
  • Golang
  • PowerShell

 

Cloud & infrastructure

  • Azure cloud platform (infrastructure, services, architecture)
  • AWS (general cloud architecture exposure)
  • Infrastructure-as-code (IaC) practices and tooling
  • Cloud-native development patterns
  • CI/CD pipeline design and management

 

Identity, access, & endpoint management

  • Azure Active Directory administration
  • Identity and access management (IAM) concepts and implementation
  • Microsoft Intune for endpoint configuration and management
  • Authentication and authorization workflows

 

Library systems & automation

  • Alma (library services platform)
  • Primo (classic and NDE)
  • ILLiad and RapidILL for interlibrary loan workflows
  • API integration and library automation
  • Digital archive development and management

 

Operating systems & systems administration

  • Linux system administration and maintenance
  • Command-line and terminal-based workflows
  • System monitoring, patching, and configuration management

 

Development tools & practices

  • Git and GitHub for version control
  • VS Code for development
  • RESTful API design and integration
  • JSON and related data formats
  • Scripting for task automation and workflow optimization