Faculty by Undergraduate Concentration
All history majors select a geographic region of concentration as their primary area of study: Americas and Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe and the Mediterranean World. Majors are encouraged to get to know the faculty in their region of concentration as early as possible.
History majors are also encouraged to carve out their own unique thematic research pathway — religion, social movements, science and environment, and gender, to name a few — and to get to know the history faculty who specialize in those research areas.
***Click on a faculty member's name to view their detailed profile information.***

- Title
- Director of The Humanities Institute
- Director of the Center for Jewish Studies
- Professor and Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies
- Division Humanities Division
- Department
- History Department
- Affiliations History of Consciousness Department, Jewish Studies, Literature Department, Stevenson College
- Phone 831-459-1924 (Message)
- Office Location
- Humanities Building 1, 515 Humanities 1
- 331 Humanities 1
- Office Hours Spring 2022: Tue. 11:00am to 1:00pm by appointment via Zoom.
- Mail Stop Humanities Academic Services
- Mailing Address
- 1156 High Street
- Santa Cruz CA 95064
- Faculty Areas of Expertise Jewish Studies and Judaism, Religion and Secularism, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, African American / Black Studies, Hebrew, Yiddish, Ethnography
- Courses HIS 107, Religion and Modernity; HIS 196M, Shtetl: Eastern European Jewish Life; HIS 257, Shtetl: Eastern European Jewish Life; HIS 178A, Eighteenth Century European Intellectual History
Summary of Expertise
Modern Jewish history; Hasidism; African American Islam; history of eugenics in the United States
Research Interests
Currently examining the history of early Jewish ethnography
Biography, Education and Training
Ph.D. University of Chicago
Honors, Awards and Grants
Guggenheim Fellow
National Jewish Book Award Finalist
Honorable Mention, Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians for Best Book in Social and/or Intellectual History