I am an Associate Professor of History at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, where I also hold the Endowed Professorship in Jewish History.
My ongoing research focuses on Jewish life in Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland. I am especially interested in Jewish museum practices, language politics, and schooling.
I previously was a Research Fellow at New Europe College Institute for Advanced Studies in Bucharest, Romania, and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University.
I hold a doctorate from the joint program of the Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies and the History Department at NYU. In the academic year 2014-2015, I finished my dissertation, on the regional variation in Polish Jewish collection initiatives, on a Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship from NYU. I have also held fellowships from the Center for Jewish History, YIVO, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Council for European Studies, and the American Council of Learned Societies. I received an MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary and an AB from Vassar College.
In addition to my research and teaching interests, I have been involved in a number of public scholarly projects. I was a Managing Editor and Pedagogy Editor at In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies and serve on the journal’s editorial board; I also have served as a consultant to archival and museum projects at YIVO and Polin: Museum of the History of Polish Jews, designing exhibits and creating educational programming.
