Faculty by Research Specialization
The Department of History at UC Santa Cruz is known for its innovative research and exemplary scholarship. Our faculty work at the cutting edge of their respective fields, covering a wide variety of geographic, temporal, and thematic fields of study. The areas of specialization listed here are by no means an exhaustive list of our scholastic interests. Rather, they highlight the diverse and often overlapping ideas and approaches we explore within our teaching and research.
- 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
- Office Location
- Humanities Building 1, 331 Humanities 1
- Office Hours Winter 2025: Tuesdays, 11:30pm to 1:30pm, 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
