Debra Renee Kaufman

Debra Renee Kaufman, Matthews Distinguished Professor and Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University, is the founder and former director of both the Women’s Studies Program and the Jewish Studies Program at Northeastern. She has written widely in the areas of the family, feminist methodology and theory, gender roles, women’s studies and contemporary Jewish identity in the United States. She was the special sections editor for Contemporary Jewry: Women and the Holocaust and the general editor of The Media, The Academy and the Law: Assessing the Truth from the Protocols of Zion to Holocaust Denial. Her books include Achievement and Women: Challenging the Assumptions and Rachel’s Daughters: Newly Orthodox Jewish Women.

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Women's Studies in the United States

Jewish women were instrumental in creating women’s studies as an academic discipline and contributed significantly to its growth and evolution. They have been critical not only as political activists, administrators, and editors of the key women’s studies journals, but also as prominent thinkers in the field’s intellectual debates.

Judaic Studies in the United States

When the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) was established in 1969 as the professional organization of scholars in the interdisciplinary field of Judaic studies, there were no women among its founders. Within the past few generations, however, a field that was traditionally dominated by men has gradually witnessed the emergence of many women scholars.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Debra Renee Kaufman." (Viewed on November 23, 2024) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/kaufman-debra>.