EVELYN DEAN-OLMSTED, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras
To Be Mexican, Jewish, and Arab: Language and Laughter in Mexico City
JOSHUA FRIEDMAN, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Brooklyn College
Yiddish Returns: Language, Intergenerational Gifts, and Jewish Devotion
JESSICA RODA, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Ethnographic Research in the Aftermath of Violence, Concordia University
Ruptures and Reconstruction of Kinship Ties among OTD (Off the Derech) Communities: Gender, Sexualities, and Personhood in New York City
RACHEL GORDAN, Scholar-in-Residence, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University
How Judaism Became an American Religion
JILLIAN POWERS, Lecturer in American Studies/Sociology Department Undergraduate Advising Head (Spring 2016), Brandeis University
Traveling to Belong
MATTHEW BOXER, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, Brandeis University
Judaism as a Contact Sport: Lessons from Small Jewish Communities
Dr. Boxer’s project focuses on the effects of Jewish community size on Jewish identity and represents an important application of both demography and theories of identity development to a problem that has largely been understudied in the sociology of American Jewish life. His rigorous and unsentimental look at the small population centers in which a significant number of Jews can be found provides a helpful understanding of the prospects for the future of Jewish belonging and identity in such communities. Grounded in a commitment to applied social research, Boxer represents an approach to the sociology of American Jews that seeks to engender discussions both in the academy and beyond.
LAURA LIMONIC, Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Old Westbury
The Privileged ‘In-Between’ Status of Latino Jews
Exploring the complex intersection of Latino and Jewish identities among Jewish immigrants from Latin America, Professor Limonic’s research situates the sociology of American Jews in the context of broader social and demographic patterns that are reshaping America’s ethnic landscape. Equally well-versed in the sociology of immigration, of Latinos and of American Jews, Limonic demonstrates how first-rate sociological research weaves together strands from multiple subfields to contribute something new and innovative to each. Her work offers a model for a sociology of American Jewry that is deeply engaged at the discipline of sociology’s cutting edge.
