I am a historian and an Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College (CUNY). Previously, I was an Associate Professor of History at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, where I also held the Endowed Professorship in Jewish History.
My first book, Displays of Belonging: Polish Jewish Collecting and Museums, 1891-1941 has recently come out with Cornell University Press. The book received a Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award from the Association for Jewish Studies.
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. My current research concerns technical/vocational education for girls in interwar Poland, focusing on a network of girls’ schools.
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 Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the JDC Archives, EHRI, the Center for Jewish History, YIVO, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Council for European Studies, and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others. 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 am a Peer Review Editor at In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies; 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.
