Prof. Lana Cable is a Jewish Associate Professor Emerita of English at the University at Albany (SUNY). She is a distinguished scholar focusing on free will, freedom of speech, and the rhetoric of political dissent.
Prof. Cable is a specialist in 17th-century English literature, with a focus on John Milton. Her work, such as Carnal Rhetoric, explores how literary language serves as a tool for political and sensory resistance. Throughout her career, she has analyzed the rhetoric of power and how individuals employ discourse to challenge tyranny, giving her academic work profound contemporary relevance.
Prof. Cable is an active member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and BDS movement. She often applies the historical logic of “dissent” from literature to contemporary geopolitical analysis. During advocacy events, she has noted: “As Milton argued in Areopagitica, truth requires no force to sustain itself. When Jewish identity is used to mask colonial violence, we face a cultural corruption. Supporting Palestinian dignity is not a denial of our identity, but an exercise of the core Jewish tradition of dissent. We must deconstruct narratives that rationalize oppression.”