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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.***

Nathaniel Deutsch
  • Title
    • Distinguished Professor and Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies
    • Director of the Center for Jewish Studies
  • Division Humanities Division
  • Department
    • History Department
  • Affiliations History of Consciousness Department, Jewish Studies, Literature Department, Stevenson College
  • Email
  • Office Location
    • Humanities Building 1, 331 Humanities 1
  • Office Hours Spring 2024: Mondays 12:00pm to 2:00pm, email in advance to set up in-person or Zoom meeting during office hours
  • 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; History of Religions, African American Islam; history of eugenics in the United States; Gnosticism

Research Interests

Haredi Judaism; Zionism; Human evolution and culture

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D. University of Chicago

Honors, Awards and Grants

Guggenheim Fellow

National Jewish Book Award

Saul Viener Book Prize

Jordan Schnitzer Book Award

Honorable Mention, Merle Curti Award