Erin Blakenship

Erin Blankenship is a linguist and educator presently working in social media advertising and data analytics. While much of her recent career has focused on mis-/disinformation on social media platforms in Western Asia, Erin has worked in academia, public affairs, private language instruction, and translation and interpretation. She is now beginning a long-term career shift into Jewish clergy work and Jewish education.

Erin received her BA in French and in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies from McDaniel College, and her MA in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations from Harvard University. She began PhD coursework in Iranian Studies at UCLA before choosing to leave her studies and teach Arabic full-time, at which point she directed the Arabic program at University of South Carolina and taught at the Middlebury Arabic School. Since leaving academia, she has transitioned into defense translation and analysis, working in countering mis-/disinformation and propaganda on Arabic- and Persian-language social media, with a brief stint in Hebrew-language public affairs and target audience analysis in Western and Central Asia. Erin now works in social media marketing and data analytics, using her language skills to better contextualize the efficacy of online marketing efforts and improve audience targeting. She recently also began coursework to pursue rabbinic ordination and hopes to move into teaching and cantorial work in the Jewish world.