RESEARCH

I am currently a doctoral student in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Virginia, in the Theology, Ethics, and Culture Program (TEC), where I focus on Religion and Culture.  I was the first Morgenstern Graduate Fellow in Jewish Studies, and my research interests include material religion, ethnographic approaches to religious practice, transgression in contemporary American Jewish communities, and Jewish and Islamic literature.  I have also worked as a reader for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

Academic Publications:

"The Mezuzah:  American Judaism and Constructions of Domestic Sacred Space," in American Sanctuary: Understanding Sacred Spaces, ed. Louis P. Nelson, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press (2006), 182-202.

"Passover in America," in The Encyclopedia of American Holidays and National Days, ed. Len Travers, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (2006), 96-111.

Conference Papers:

"Tattoo Jew: Jewish Tattoos and Jewish-American Identity Construction," 2006 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Study of Judaism Section (Washington, DC).

"The Mezuzah:  American Judaism and Constructions of Domestic Sacred Space," 2005 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Anthropology of Religion Group (Philadelphia, PA).

Invited Lectures:

"Comparative Issues in Jewish and Islamic Women's Literature," Washington & Lee University (Lexington, VA), 2006.

Jewish Studies and Material Religion Resources:

The MODIYA Project - The Material History of American Religion Project - Index of Articles on Jewish Studies - Jewschool