My research interests both guide and are informed by my work in the classroom. In my teaching, I highlight for students how Jews were shaped by and contributed to central ideas about religion, race, nationalism, and difference in the modern and ancient worlds. I work with students to explore how Jewish history and thought can be used as a critical lens through which we can interrogate some of society’s most important issues. Below is a selection of courses I’ve taught at the University of Chicago and Rice University.
Courses
Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia
Through a variety of primary sources, students explore the close interaction between the histories and practices of anti-Semitisim and Islamophobia.
Jews, Race, and Religion
Eschewing binaries and taken-for-granted assumptions, this course explores the vicissitudes of Jewish racialization across space and time.
Race and Religion
This course asks students to think comparatively, historically, and theoretically about the many ways that discourses of race and religion have been linked together, especially in the experiences of Jews and Black people.
Jewish History, 1492-Present
Surveying the period of modern Jewish history, students engage with various sources, places, and ideas, from Europe to the Atlantic world to the Middle East.
Politics and Religion: The Jewish Question
Taking the Jewish Question as its primary case study, students analyze the relationship between politics and religion as a structuring motif of political life.