Love & Tradition

Keren R. McGinity

Education

Postdoctoral Training, University of Michigan, 2008-2010, Judaic Studies

Ph.D., Brown University, May 2005, History

A.M., Brown University, May 1999, History

A.L.M., Harvard University, June 1997, History, in Extension Studies

B.A., Rutgers University, May 1989, Spanish

Professional Appointments

Brandeis University, Waltham, MA                                                                           Fall 2010-Present
Adjunct Assistant Professor, American Studies, Spring 2013
Research Associate, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Winter 2012-Present
Scholar-in-Residence, HBI, Fall 2011
Research Affiliate, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Winter 2012-Present
Associate Research Scientist, CMJS, Sept. 2010-Aug. 2011

Gratz College, Melrose Park, PA                                                                                           Spring 2013
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Sociology 

Love & Tradition, West Roxbury, MA                                                                 Winter 2012-Present
Founder and Director

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI                                                         Fall 2008-Spring 2012
Visiting Scholar, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, Sept. 2010-June 2012
Mandell L. Berman Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Contemporary American Jewish Life,
Frankel Center for Judaic Studies,
and Faculty Associate in the Program in American Culture, Sept. 2008-Aug. 2010

Brown University, Providence, RI                                                        Summer 2005-Summer 2008
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, July 2007-Aug. 2008
Visiting Scholar, Department of History, Sept. 2006-June 2007
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, July 2005-June 2006

Stonehill College, Easton, MA                                                                    Spring 2007-Spring 2008
Teaching Fellow, Department of History, Aug. 2007-May 2008
Faculty Fellow in History, Spring 2007

Books

Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America. New York: NYU Press, February 2009.

Unexpected Partners: Intermarriage and Jewish Fatherhood. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press (Under Contract).

Chapters in Books

“Intermarriage.” In The Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture, edited by Judith Baskin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Summer 2011.

“Intermarriage.” In Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions, edited by Yudit Kornberg Greenberg. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009.

“Were Women Who Intermarried Still Jewish? A Twentieth Century History of Identity in America.” In Studies in Jewish Civilization 18: Love—Ideal and Real—in the Jewish Tradition,” edited by L. Greenspoon, R. Simkins, and J. Cahan. Omaha: Creighton University Press, 2008.

“American History and Historiography.” In The Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, edited by Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Detroit: Macmillan Reference U.S.A. (2007).

“Mary Antin” and “Phyllis Chesler.” In Encyclopedia Judaica. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 2006.

“Immigrant Jewish Women Who Married ‘Out’.” In Studies in Jewish Civilization 14: Women and Judaism, edited by L. Greenspoon, R. Simkins, and J. Cahan. Omaha: Creighton University Press, 2003: 263-294.

“The New Woman of the late nineteenth century was constrained by the culture’s concern with body consciousness.” In History in Dispute 3: American Social and Political Movements, 1900-1945: Pursuit of Progress, edited by Robert Allison. Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press, 2000: 169-173.

Book Review, Opinion, and Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor, “Focus on Gender Issues.” New York Jewish Week, 8 November 2011.

Review, “Golden Jews.” Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Spring 2010 Vol. 7:1.

Letter to the Editor. “Painting Part of the Intermarriage Story.” Forward, 4 December 2009.

Letter to the Editor. “Generations Apart on Intermarriage.” New York Jewish Week, 5 May 2009.

Op-ed. “Women Key in Intermarriage.” Jewish Advocate, 27 May-2 June 2005, 22.

Review. “A Book with South Appeal.” The Lion’s Roar, 17 April 1998, 12; 18.

Refereed Journal Articles

“The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: How the Gender of the Jewish Parent Influences Intermarriage.” In AJS Perspectives: The Marriage Issue, the Newsletter of the Association for Jewish Studies, (Spring 2013).

“Mandell ‘Bill’ Berman: Man of Vision and Valor,” ASSJ Newsletter vol. 2, no. 2, December 2010.

“The Island Within the Island: A Call for Inter-Graduate Student Support.” AJS Perspectives, the Newsletter of the Association for Jewish Studies (Spring/Summer 2004): 17.

“The Real Mary Antin: Woman on a Mission in the Promised Land.” American Jewish History 86, no. 3 (September 1998). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 285-307.

Non-refereed Journal Articles

“The November Dilemma: How Personal is the Political?” In Sh’ma, the Journal of Jewish Ideas, 27 December 2012.

“Gender Matters: Jewish Identity, Intermarriage, and Parenthood.” In Contact, the Journal of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, Winter 2012, Vol. 14: no. 2.

“Birth of A Jewish Matriarch.” In InterfaithFamily.com, 17 March 2009.

“Gender History as a Key to Understanding Intermarriage.” In InterfaithFamily.com 164, 2 August 2005.

“Daughter of the Covenant.” In InterfaithFamily.com 135, June 2004.

“Intermarriage Spurs Renewal of Faith.” In InterfaithFamily.com 120, October 2003.

Invited Papers & Lectures

Respondent, “Names and the Boundaries of Identity in American Jewish Life,” Scholars Biennial Conference in American Jewish History, New York, NY, 11-13 June 2012.

Paper, “Curb Your Enthusiasm: Interfaith Romance, Gender, and Popular Culture,” 43rd Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Washington, DC, 18-20 December 2011.

Paper, “’Shiksas are for Practice:’ Dismantling the Myths behind the ‘Other’ Woman,” 42nd Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, MA, 19-21 December 2010.

Lecture, “Men Who Married ‘Out’: Jewish Intermarriage in A Sub-community,” Michigan State University Jewish Studies and Center for Gender in Global Context, Lansing, MI, 16 March 2010.

Lecture, “Jews, Gender, and Interfaith Marriage: What Can History Tell Us?” Kripke Center for the Study of Religion and Society, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, 3 February 2010.

Paper, “The Jewish Masculine Mystique: Interfaith Romance and Fatherhood in American Life,” 41st Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Los Angeles, CA, 20-22 December 2009.

Lecture, “Of Mice and Mensches: An American History of Intermarriage and Fatherhood,” Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 14 October 2009.

Paper, “Good Fathers: Men, Intermarriage, and Jewish Identity Politics,” Association for Social Scientific Study of Jewry at the Conference of the Association for Sociology of Religion, San Francisco, CA, 10 August 2009.

Webinar, “Gender Matters: A New Framework for Understanding Jewish Intermarriage Over Time,”

Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry/Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU Wagner, Boston, MA, 24 June 2009.

Paper, “Disappearing Acts?: Intermarried Men and the Jewish Community,” 40th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Washington, DC, 21-23 December 2008.

Paper, “Matriarchs on the Margin: Intermarried Jewish Women’s Modus Vivendi,” The Jewish Theological Seminary, Jewish Feminist Research Group, New York, 29 October 2007.

Paper, “’Over My Dead Body!” Jewish Daughters, Mothers and Intermarriage,” 38th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, 17-19 December 2006.

Paper, “Winning at ‘Assimilation?’: How Feminism Changed the Meaning of Intermarriage for Jewish Women,” Boston Seminar in Immigration and Urban History, Massachusetts Historical Society, 27 April 2006.

Panel Chair, “When Religion and Gender Intersect: Anti-Feminist Feminisms in Twentieth-Century Jewish and Christian Women’s Movements,” Boston College Conference on the History of Religion, 24 March 2006.

Paper, “Dismantling Assumptions: Intermarriage, Jewish Women and Feminism in the American Family,” 37th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Washington, DC, 18-20 December 2005.

Paper, “Were Women Who Intermarried Still Jewish?: A Twentieth Century History of Identity in America,” Eighteenth Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, 18-19 September 2005.

Paper, “Your Neighborhood or Mine? Jewish Women and Intermarriage, 1930-1959,” Fifth Biennial Scholars’ Conference on American Jewish History, SUNY-Albany, June 2002.

Paper, “A Woman Divided: Mary Antin’s Original Promised Land,” Third Biennial Scholars’ Conference on American Jewish History, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, OH, June 1998.

Community Presentations

“Two Histories of Intermarriage,” Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs Keruv Initiative, Pearlstone Retreat and Conference Center, Reistertown, MD, 18 May 2012.

“What Your Mother Didn’t Tell You About Intermarriage,” Temple Shir Tikvah, Winchester, MA, 6 May 2012.

“Interfaith Romance, Gender, and Popular Culture,” Newton Community Education, 15 March 2012.

“In Conversation with Rabbi Keith Stern,” Temple Beth Avodah, Newton, MA, 22 January 2012.

“Kosher Intermarriage: How the Gender of the Jew Influences the Outcome,” Temple Isaiah, Lexington, MA, 12 December 2010.

“Jews and Gender: Why Intermarriage Isn’t the End of the World,” Beth-El Congregation, Fort Worth, TX, Shabbat Service and Women of Reform Judaism Program, 15-16 October 2010.

“Ruthie’s Irish Abe: Jews, Gender, and Intermarriage,” Temple Emanuel, A Program of the Keruv Committee and the Jewish Discovery Institute, Newton, MA, 25 February 2010; Temple Israel, Natick, MA, 24 February 2010; and Temple Emannuel, Wakefield, MA, 23 February 2010.

“Intermarriage and Gender,” Temple Beth Emeth, Ann Arbor, MI, 26 January 2010.

“Still Jewish,” Reading, Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA, 25 June 2009.

“The Bonds of Womanhood: American Jews, Intermarriage, and Democracy,” Women’s Day of Learning Program, Jewish Federation of Ann Arbor, Jewish Community Center, 8 March 2009.

“Family Affairs: Intermarriage and Jewish Parents in Historical Perspective,” Jewish Family Services, Jewish Community Center, Ann Arbor, MI, 8 February 2009.

“Still Jewish,” Book Talk, Kalamazoo Jewish Book Fair, Ladies Library Association, Kalamazoo, MI, 9 November 2008.

“Even A Shande Can Have A Silver Lining: Intermarriage and Jewish Women in Historical Perspective,” Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center, Newton, MA, 28 May 2008.

“The Forbidden Road Home: Jewish Women Who Married ‘Out’ Across Time,” Knoxville Jewish Alliance Women’s Network, Jewish Community Center, Knoxville, TN, 26 February 2006.

“Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America,” New Women’s Voices in Jewish Studies, Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Hebrew College, Boston, MA, 17 April 2005.

“Intermarried Jewish Women,” A Women’s Kallah at Temple Beth Avodah, Newton, MA, 19 March 2005.

University Teaching

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Brandeis University , Spring 2013

AMST (123b), Interfaith, Interethnic, Interracial America

Adjunct Assistant Professor (Online), Gratz College, Spring 2013

SOC 30297-OL, Intermarriage in America

Guest Lecturer, Brandeis University, Spring 2011-Present

NEJS 164a Judaism Confronts America, “Love Outside the Fold: A History of Intermarried Jewish Men,” 6 October 2011.

AMST 124b American Love and Marriage, “American Love and Intermarriage,” 8 November 2011.

FYS 28b American Family: Past and Present,” Intermarriage in the Jewish Family,” 6 December 2011.

HN 24 Identity Graduate Seminar, “Jewish Identity through Intermarriage,” April 12, 2011.

Berman Visiting Assistant Professor, Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, Jan.-April, 2010

American Jews since 1945, Adult Education Study Group, Detroit, MI

Visiting Assistant Professor, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2007-2008 and 2005-2006

HIST 0740 Religion, Ethnicity, and Race Through History, Summer 2008

HI 1971J Ethnic Women’s Histories, Spring 2008

HI 180 (ET 180/RS 189) Interfaith, Interethnic, Interracial America, Fall 2005

HI 197 Biography and Autobiography as Sources for American History, Spring 2006

Stonehill Teaching Fellow, Stonehill College, Easton, MA, 2007-2008

GH100 The Melting Pot in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century America

Faculty Fellow in History, Stonehill College, Easton, MA, Spring 2007

GH 100 Out of Many, One: Modern America Since 1840

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Brown University, Providence, RI, 1999-2001

HI 174 Civil War and Reconstruction, Spring 2001

HI 51 U.S. History to 1877, Fall 1999 and Fall 2000

HI 52 U.S. History 1877-1994, Spring 2000

Other Guest Lectures, 1997-2011

LHIS 363 Gender and Power in History, “Understanding Jewish Intermarriage,” Berklee College of Music, 17 November 2011.

SOC 410/JS 417 Sociology of the American Jewish Community, “Identity and Interfaith Marriage,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 26 January 2009.

HI 294 Practice of History Graduate Seminar, “The Dissertation: From Proposal to Publication,” Brown University, Providence, RI, 5 December 2006.

HI 173 Antebellum America and the Road to the Civil War, “Females Were Born, Women Were Made: Womanhood and Domesticity in Antebellum America,” Brown University, Providence, RI, October 2000.

AM ST 331 Ethnic America, “New Americans, All: Abraham Cahan’s Yekl vis a vis Mary Antin’s Promised Land,” Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, February 1998.

AM ST 111 What Is An American? “Why is The Promised Land So Special?” Suffolk University, Boston, MA, April 1997.

Other Teaching

Instructor, Newton Community Education, Winter 2012

Instructor, Newton South High School and Newton Summer School, October 1997-Summer 1998 U.S. History and Spanish

Citizenship Teacher, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, January-September 1997 Civics, History, and ESL

Teaching Interests

American Women’s/Gender History; Sociology of Gender & Religion; Jewish Women’s History; Marriage & Family; Popular Culture; the Culture of Consumption; Ethnic Literature; Immigration & Immigrants; American Jewish History; Modern Jewish History; Antisemitism & the Holocaust; Israel, the People and the State; Secular Jewish History & Cultures; Sexuality; American Communities and Social Networks.

Advising & Evaluating

Masters Thesis Advisor, Aura Ahuvia, “Childhood Self-Narrative and Adult Synagogue Attitudes,” (Univ. of Michigan, 2009-2010).

Honors Thesis Reader, Casey Bohlen, “Our Father Who Art in Congress”: The Political Beginnings of Father Robert F. Drinan, S.J.” (Brown Univ., Spring 2008);

Honors Thesis Reader, Elizabeth K. Wilson, “Staging Civil Rights: Black Theater and White Critics in New York City, 1959-1968” (Brown Univ., Spring 2008);

Honors Thesis Advisor, Tara Vega, “Black, White and Forgotten: The Placées of Antebellum New Orleans” (Brown Univ., Spring 2006-Spring 2007);

Honors Thesis Advisor, Allison Laplantney, “Three Balls of Pure Love and Three Knocks on the Floorboards: Modern American Spiritualism and Shaker Visionary Experience” (Brown, Spring 2006);

Honors Thesis Reader, Tara Lang “’A Mother in Defense of Her Family is Not Easily Turned Aside:’ Women Strike for Peace, 1961-1973” (Brown Univ., Spring 2006);

Honors Thesis Reader, Jonas Kieffer, “An Interest Residing Partly in Both Territories”: The Emergence of Nationalism in the “Verdmont” Borderlands, 1777-1794 (Brown Univ., Fall 2005).

Awards, Honors & Fellowships

Association for Jewish Studies Women’s Caucus Travel Grant, 2011

Rosalie Katchen AJS Travel Award, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, 2005, 2011

Mandell L. Berman Foundation Grant, 2010-2011

Lucius N. Littauer Foundation Grant, 2010

National Jewish Book Awards Finalist in Women’s Studies, 2009

Mandell L. Berman Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2008-2010

Director’s Discretionary Research Award, University of Michigan’s Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, 2009

Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Dissertation Fellowship, 2003-2004

Wellesley College Mary McEwen Schimke Fellowship, 2002-2003

National Women’s Studies Association Jewish Women’s Caucus Scholarship, 2002

Steven Robert Graduate Fellowship, Brown University, Fall 2002

Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Junior Research Award, 2001-2002

Brown University Fellowships, 1999-2005

Harvard Extension Dean’s Outstanding Social Sciences Thesis Prize, 1997

Phi Sigma Iota International Foreign Language Honor Society, 1989

Phi Beta Kappa, 1989

Research Interests

Intermarriage; ethnic constructions of femininity and masculinity; American Jewish community; miscegenation discourse, religious conversion as a gendered experience; identity; popular culture and the media; labor and birth in American culture; parenting as practice and parenthood as social construction; the relationship between the culture of consumption and physical culture; comparative immigration; aliyah.

Professional Experience & Development

Participant-Observer, Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, 2008-2010

Participant, American Association for Jewish Research Graduate Seminar, Vassar College, Summer 2001

Teaching Certificate Recipient, Sheridan Teaching Center, Brown University, 1999-2000

Graduate Research Fellow, Jewish Women’s Archive, Summer 1999

Harvard Family Research Project Administrator, Graduate School of Education, August 1996-August 1997

Video Interview Organizer, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, Summer 1996

Public Information Officer and Acting Director, Harvard Medical School, September 1993-August 1996

International Communication Coordinator, EF Institute for Cultural Exchange, Inc., Sept. 1989-July 1993

Service

Member, Academic Council, American Jewish Historical Society, (June 2012-Present)

Advisor, “Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations,” Brooklyn Historical Society (Fall 2010-Present)

Member, Board of Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (Dec. 2009-Dec. 2011)

Coordinator, Mandell L. Berman Service Award, ASSJ (Dec. 2010-2011)

Member, Board of Professional Advisors, Jewish Outreach Institute (July 2009-Present)

Member, Academic Advisory Council, Jewish Women’s Archive (Oct. 2008-Present)

Board Member, Association for Jewish Studies, Jewish Women’s Caucus (Dec. 2006-Dec. 2010)

Trustee, Board of Directors, Temple Beth Avodah, Newton, MA (July 2006-June 2008)

Professional Affiliations

Assoc. for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry; Assoc. for Jewish Studies, Jewish Women’s Caucus; American Jewish Historical Society; American Studies Assoc., Religion and American Culture Caucus; Coordinating Council for Women in History; Jewish Women’s Archive; American Sociological Assoc.

Updated 2/20/13