Sarah Imhoff
[email protected] |1033 E Third St., Sycamore Hall 223, Bloomington, IN 47405
Academic Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Positions Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies, 2022-present
Professor, 2023-present
Associate Professor, 2018-present
Assistant Professor, 2012-2018
Religious Studies and Borns Jewish Studies Program
Affiliated Faculty, Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society
Affiliated Faculty, Gender Studies Department
Adjunct Faculty, History Department
Adjunct Faculty, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures Department
Visiting Assistant Professor, 2010-2012
Religious Studies and Borns Jewish Studies Program
Education University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, IL.
PhD, History of Judaism, 2010.
Dissertation: Making Jewish Gender: Religion, Race, Sexuality, and American Jews,
1910-1924
MA, Study of Religion, 2005.
Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
BAS: dual Bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies and in Mathematics, 2002.
Publications Books
The Lives of Jessie Sampter: Queer, Disabled, Zionist
Duke University Press, 2022
* 2022 National Jewish Book Award finalist
* TOME grant, supporting full open access
Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism
Indiana University Press, March 2017
Where Are the Women? Jewish Studies and Gender
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Co-authored with Susannah Heschel
Under contract with Princeton University Press (full manuscript now out with
reviewers)
American Judaisms: A Hemispheric History
Under contract with Routledge
Edited Volumes
Jewish Women Thinkers
Co-edited with Andrea Cooper
Under contract with Wayne State University Press
Jews of Color: A Reader
Co-edited with Samira Mehta, SooJi Min Maranda, and Sandra
Lawson In preparation
Journal Edited
American Religion
co-founder, co-editor with M Cooper Harriss, 2019- present
Current Projects
“Ability”
Critical Terms in Religious Studies, (2
nd
edition) ed. Sarah Hammerschlag
(accepted)
“Jessie Sampter’s Pacifism”
An Equal Share of Freedom: American Jews and World War I, eds. Mark A.
Raider and Gary P. Zola (forthcoming December 2023, University of Cincinnati
Press)
“Judaism”
book chapter accepted for Sexuality in Key Concepts in Interreligious Dialogues
series, ed. Georges Tamer (accepted, De Gruyter Press)
“Gender and Sexuality”
Oxford Handbook of American Jewish History, eds. Michael Cohen and Shari Rabin
(accepted, Oxford University Press)
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“American Zionist Women’s Writing as Political Thought”
Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook (resubmitted)
“The Gendered Landscape of American Judaism”
American Jewry, ed. Frederick Greenspahn (accepted, NYU Press)
“Friendship is the Cream of Life: Mary Antin and Jessie Sampter’s Religious
Creativity,” co-authored with Rachel B. Gross
Religion and American Culture (accepted)
Refereed Articles and Book Chapters
“Race and American Judaism”
Oxford Bibliographies, ed. Naomi Seidman (New York: Oxford University Press) May
30, 2023.
“Floating Jews: The Luftmentsh as Economic Character,” co-authored with Nicolas
Vallois
Oeconomia 12.2 (2022)
“Homemaking in Palestine: Jessie Sampter, Religion, and Relation” in The Politics of
Religion at Home and Abroad, ed. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and Winnifred Sullivan
(Columbia University Press, 2021)
“Racial Standing: How American Jews Imagine Community, and Why That Matters”
Judaism, Race, and Ethics: Conversations and Questions, ed. Jonathan Crane (Penn
State University Press, 2020)
“A Redemptive Masculinity: American Images of Jewish Men from the Holocaust to
the Six Day War”
The Holocaust and Masculinity: Critical Inquiries in to the Presence and Absence of
Men, ed. Bjorn Krondorfer and Ovidiu Creanga (SUNY Press, 2020)
“Jewish Women and Race, Religion, and Sexuality in the Age of Immigration”
Religion is Raced: Understanding American Religion in the Twenty-First Century, ed.
Grace Yukich and Penny Edgell (NYU Press, 2020)
“Belief”
Religion, Law, USA, ed. Joshua Dubler and Isaac Weiner (NYU Press, 2019)
“Jews, Jewish Studies, and the Study of Islam”
Identity, Politics, and the Study of Islam: Current Dilemmas in the Study of Religion,
ed. Matthew Sheehy (Equinox, 2018)
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“Religion, Geography, and the Impossibility of Jewish Identity”
in Theorizing “Religion” in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Nickolas Roubekas
(Equinox, 2018)
“Why Disability Studies Needs to Take Religion Seriously”
Religions 8.9 (2017)
“Lineage Matters: DNA, Race, and Gene Talk in Judaism and Messianic Judaism”
coauthored with Hillary Kaell
Religion and American Culture 26.2 (2017)
“Hoover's Judeo-Christians: Jews, Judaism, and Communism in the Cold War” in
“True Faith and Allegiance”: Religion and the FBI, eds. Sylvester A. Johnson and
Steven Weitzman (University of California Press, 2017)
“The Myth of American Jewish Feminization”
Jewish Social Studies 21.3 (July 2016)
“The Creation Story of Religious Studies, or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and
Love Schempp”
Journal of the American Academy of Religion (June 2016)
"Lost, Hidden, Discovered: Theologies of DNA in North American Judaism and
Messianic Judaism"
in Leonard Greenspoon, ed. Mishpachah: The Jewish Family in Tradition and
Transition (Purdue University Press, 2016)
"Half-Jewish, Just Jewish, and the Oddities of Religious Identifications" Journal
of Religion and Society (March 2016)
“DNA and the Problem of Jewish Embodiment”
Critical Research in Religion 2.2 (Aug 2014)
“Wild Tribes and Ancient Semites: Israelite-Indian Identification and the American
West”
Culture and Religion (May 2014)
“Traces of Race: American Jewish Identity”
in Leonard Greenspoon, ed. Who Is A Jew? Reflections on History, Religion, and
Culture (Purdue University Press, 2014)
“Manly Missions: Jews, Christians, and Religious Masculinity in Progressive Era
America”
American Jewish History 97.2 (Winter 2012)
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“My Sons Have Defeated Me: Walter Lippmann, Felix Adler, and Secular Moral
Authority”
Journal of Religion 92.4 (Oct 2012)
“The Heart of the Ghetto? The Founding of the Maxwell Street Settlement House”
Journal of Illinois History 15.3 (Autumn 2012)
“Hasidism” in The Encyclopedia of Religion in America. Charles Lippy and Peter
Williams, eds.
(C.Q. Press, 2010)
“The Spirit and the Law: American Jewish Spirituality” in Charles Lippy, ed.
Spirituality in America. (Westport, CT: Praeger Press, 2006).
Other Articles and Chapters
“Gender Inclusivity: A Preliminary Guide for Jewish Studies Scholars”
co-authored with Susannah Heschel, AJS Perspectives, “The Patriarchy Issue”
(Spring 2019)
“Women and Gender, Past and Present: A Jewish Studies Story”
Jewish Social Studies 24:2 Feminist History retrospective (Winter 2019)
“When Science Made Jews Both a Race and a Religion” Cosmologics (Oct 2018)
https://cosmologicsmagazine.com/sarah-imhoff-when-science-made-jews-both-a-
raceand-a-religion/
“Carlebach and the Unheard Stories”
American Jewish History, (Oct 2016)
“The Man in Black: Matisyahu, Identity, and Authenticity”
Religion and Culture Web Forum. University of Chicago, (Feb 2010).
Book Review Essay: “All in the Family? Jewish Intermarriage in America,” Religious
Studies Review 36:4 (Dec 2010)
Selected Online Content:
“Nonbinary Genders Beyond Male and Female Would Have Been No Surprise to
Ancient Rabbis”
The Conversation, July 2023
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“The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Social Model of Disability”
Collecting These Times, February 2022
“Lauren Tuchman”
Jewish Women’s Archive, June 2021
“Shofar Blast”
Uncivil Religion (Smithsonian), December 2021
“The Complexity of Race, Religion, and Jewishness – And What that Might Teach Us”
Jewish Studies/Ethnic Studies, May 2021
“FBI Reaches out to Hasidic Jews to Fight Antisemitism – but Bureau has Fraught
History with Judaism”
The Conversation, April 2021
“Practices of Relation,” co-authored with Marc Baer.
Immanent Frame, July 2020
“Judaism, COVID-19, and Crip Wisdom”
Berkley Center (Georgetown), April 2020
“Jews, Sex Positivity, and Abuse”
The Revealer, March 2020
“Body”
Immanent Frame, A Universe of Terms, Nov 2019
“Gender and the Goy”
Political Theology, Oct 2019
“Error 404: Women Not Found”
Feminist Studies in Religion July 2019
“The Myth of Secular Law as Savior”
Immanent Frame, Sex and the Catholic Church, Feb 2019
“Where are the Women in Jewish Studies” co-authored with Susannah Heschel
Forward, July 3, 2018.
“Future Imperfect”,
Immanent Frame, Feb 2018
“Intermarriage and the Complexity of Jewish Identity”
Marginalia Review of Books, Dec 2015
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“The Supreme Court’s Faith in Belief,”
The Immanent Frame, Dec 2014
“How Should One Teach Introduction to Jewish Studies?” AJS Perspectives, Fall 2014
“Reflections on Jewish Studies,” Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 24.4 (2014)
“All Religion is Local,” Jewschool, May 2014
“Marrying Out, or Marrying In? Jewish-Chinese American Marriages” Sh’ma.
November 2013.
“Is Male Model Posing on Bed Sexy? Not If He’s a Hasid” Sightings October 3, 2013.
“Jews Who Choose: Conversion and the Americanization of Judaism” in Sh’ma. April
2013.
Contributor to Religion in the American West (published through Yale University,
website: relwest.blogspot.com) 2011-2013
“Violence and Secrecy: On Masculinity and the Akedah” in Sh’ma. September 2011.
“The Shtetl Strongman.” Sightings. Published by Martin Marty Center. December 9,
2010.
“Hyphen Nation”
Tablet. July 16, 2009.
“Jewish Girl, American Doll.” Sightings. Published by Martin Marty Center. June 18,
2009.
“The Rebbe’s Body.” Invited response to Jeffrey Shandler, “The Virtual Rebbe,”
Religion and Culture Web Forum, University of Chicago, February 2009.
“American Anti-Semitism, New and Old.” Sightings. Published by Martin Marty
Center. January 30, 2008.
Selected Book Reviews, by journal:
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal by Tisa
Wenger (2018)
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Journal of Religion
Jews on the Frontier by Shari Rabin (2019)
The Figural Jew by Sarah Hammerschlag (2012)
The Status of Women in Jewish Tradition by Isaac Sassoon (Oct 2011) Jews
and the American Soul by Andrew Heinze (Apr 2006)
History of Religions
The Urban Origins of American Judaism by Deborah Dash Moore (2016)
AJS Review
Material Culture and Jewish Thought by Kenneth Koltun-Fromm (April 2011)
H-net Reviews
Jewish Radical Feminism by Joyce Antler (August 2019)
American Jewish History
That Pride of Race and Character: The Roots of Jewish Benevolence in the
Jim Crow South by Caroline Light (July 2016)
Reading Religion
Judaisms by Aaron Hahn Tapper (2017)
Philip Roth Studies
Borrowed Voices by Jennifer Glaser (2018)
American Jewish Archives Journal
America’s Jewish Women by Pamela Nadell (forthcoming)
The White Negress by Lori Harrison-Kahan (Summer 2011)
Practical Matters
Women Remaking American Judaism, Riv Ellen Prell, ed. (Fall 2009).
Journal of Illinois History
Sundays at Sinai by Tobias Brinkman (Fall 2012)
Gender Forum
Jewish/Christian/Queer: Crossroads and Identities, Frederick Roden, ed.
Gender, Memory, and Judaism, Judit Gaszi, Andrea Peto, and Zsuzsanna
Toronyi, eds.
Musica Judaica Online Reviews
The Naming (recording), Galeet Dardashti, (December 20, 2010).
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Fellowships Research (selected)
and Awards
IU Presidential Arts & Humanities Fellowship, $50,000 (2023-24)
Indiana University
IAS Collaborative Research Award, $9,000 (2023-24)
Institute for Advanced Study (IU)
Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman Memorial Fellowship, $1800 (2021)
American Jewish Archives
Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities (IDAH) Faculty Fellowship, $11,000 (2021)
Indiana University
Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME), $15,000 (2021)
(Supports making Lives of Jessie Sampter book open access)
Indiana University
“American Religion,” with M. Cooper Harriss, $25,000 (2018)
Indiana University Arts & Humanities Council
Matching grant, with M. Cooper Harriss, $5,000 (2018)
Indiana University Gateway
Hadassah-Brandeis Research Award, Senior category, $3,500 (2017)
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
New Frontiers Research Fellowship $22,000 (2016)
Indiana University
College Arts and Humanities Institute Research Fellowship (2016)
Indiana University
Ostrom Program Grant (2016), awarded for “Taking Exception” workshop with M.
Cooper Harriss
Indiana University
College Arts and Humanities Institute Conference Funding (2016), awarded for
“Taking Exception” workshop with M. Cooper Harriss
Indiana University
Women’s Caucus Book Subvention Grant (2014)
Association for Jewish Studies
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Research Grant (2012)
Southern Jewish Historical Society
Lowenstein-Weiner Fellowship (2010)
American Jewish Archives
Teaching
Trustees’ Teaching Award (2023)
Indiana University
“Teaching Religion in the 21
st
Century Classroom” (2018-2021) $50,000
Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning
Trustees’ Teaching Award, At-Large Competition (2017)
Indiana University
Faculty, “World Religions in Greater Indianapolis” (2015)
National Endowment for the Humanities
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Teaching Indiana University - Bloomington
Experience (classes cross-listed in Jewish Studies and Religious Studies)
Undergraduate:
Jews, Christians, Muslims
Spring 2013, Autumn 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Autumn 2016, Spring
2018, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2021, Spring 2023
Religion and Law (Critical Approaches) Spring
2021, Spring 2019
Jews and Race in America
Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2016
Judaism and Gender
Spring 2013, Spring 2015
Jewish History: Spanish Expulsion to the Present Spring
2014
American Jewish History Autumn
2011, Autumn 2012
Women in American Jewish History Autumn
2010
Introduction to Judaism Autumn
2012
Sex, Gender, and Rabbinic Literature Spring
2011
Understanding the Rabbinic Mind Autumn
2010, Autumn 2011
Graduate:
Graduate Colloquium in Jewish Studies,
Spring 2012, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2017, Autumn 2018,
Autumn 2019, Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023
Directed Readings in: American Religion; Gender Theory and Religion; Religion,
Disability, and the Body; American Judaism; Women and American Religion; Religion
and the Body, Jewish History across the Americas
Each offered various semesters, Spring 2010-present
University of Chicago
Women in American Jewish History, (History, Religious Studies & Gender Studies)
Autumn 2009
American Jewish Identity (Reading and Research) Autumn
2009
Writing Core
Autumn 2007- Spring 2008
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Conferences Conference Organized:
And Sole organizer:
Lectures Jews, Race, America.
Indiana University Bloomington, October 2013
Co-Organizer:
Subversive Religiosities and More-Than-Human Materialities in Latin America
Mexico City, October 2022
Decentering American Religion
Virtual, hosted by IU Berlin Gateway, March 2021
Re-centering American Religion
UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico, March 2019
Taking Exception II
Indiana University Bloomington, March-April 2018
Taking Exception: Queering American Religion
Indiana University Bloomington, March-April 2017
Religious Studies 50 Years after Schempp: History, Institutions, Theory. Indiana
University Bloomington, September 2013.
Modernity’s Other: Studies on Jewish Women. University
of Chicago, February 2007.
Endowed Lectures:
“A Queer Zionism: Jessie Sampter and the Paradoxes of Jewish Nationalism”
Klingenstein Lecture, New College Florida, March 2022
“The Lives of Jessie Sampter: Queer, Disabled, Zionist”
Faye Seligman Woman of Valor Lecture, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, March
2022
“Becoming American, Becoming Manly: A History of American Jewish Masculinity”
Jerry Jackson Lecture, Western Carolina University, NC, October 2021
“Manliness and Its Opposites: A Brief History of American Jewish Gender”
Jeremy Zwelling Lecture, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, April 2019
“Jessie Sampter, Zionist ‘Cripple’: One Woman’s Story and How It Might Change the
Way We See Religion and Disability”
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Tate Lecture, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, October 2018
“Are Jewish Men Manly? A Story of American Masculinity”
Lichter Lecture Series, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, October 2018.
“Jewish Men Past and Present: Sexuality and Stereotypes”
Henry Samuel Levinson Lecture, University of North Carolina Greensboro,
Greensboro, NC, March 2018.
"The Mild Tribe: ‘Indians,’ the West, and American Jewish Masculinity" University
of Northern Florida, Jacksonville, FL, Oct 2017
"The Pulpit and the Classroom: Jews, Christians, Muslims, and the Study of Religion"
Goldstein Lecture. Morningside College, Sioux City, IA, March 2016.
Other Invited Lectures:
“Validity and Invalidity: Jessie Sampter, Disability, and Zionism"
Queens University, Kingston, ON, October 2023
“Disability, Embodiment, and the Limits of Knowledge” Princeton
University, Princeton, NJ, October 2023
“A Queer, Crip Zionism? The Not-So-Strange Case of Jessie Sampter” Penn
State University, State College, PA, September 2023
“Another Zionism: Jessie Sampter, Queerness, and Disability” UCLA,
Los Angeles, CA, February 2023
Keynote: “Validity and Invalidity: Jessie Sampter on Zionism and Disability”
George Mason University undergraduate conference, Washington, DC, February 2023
Keynote: “Embodied Ways of Knowing: Promises and Limitations in Religious
Studies”
Boston University graduate conference, Boston, MA, October 2022.
“הידוהיה השדחה ?עשי רטפמס - השא תי נ ו יצ ,הכנ תירי ו וקו"
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, via videoconference, January 2023.
“Mammas Boys and Manly Men: Judaism and Masculinity” Defiance
College, Defiance, Ohio, September 2022.
“Angry Religion: The Rise of American Theocracy” panelist Montclair
State University, Katz Center, February 2022.
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“Jews in the US Racial Landscape”
University of Pennsylvania, Katz Center, November 2021.
“Religion & Disability” panelist
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, via videoconference, October
2021.
“The Crime of the Century: Leopold, Loeb, and Jewish Gender”
University of Florida, via videoconference, October 2021.
“Jewish Studies / Ethnic Studies”
Stanford University and University of Southern California, Webinar, June 3, 2021
“Jews, Race, and the American West”
UCLA, via videoconference, February 2021
“An Unlikely Zionist: Jessie Sampter, Judaism, and Disability” University
of Alberta, via videoconference, November 2020.
“A Queer Zionism? Jessie Sampter and the Politics of the Body” Pomona
College, Pomona, California, March 2020.
“Cripping the Religious Past? Jessie Sampter, Zionism, and Disability” University
of California, Riverside, California, December 2019.
“Embodied Judaism: Masculinity and the US West” Colorado
University, Boulder, Colorado, November 2019.
“The ‘Crippled’ Zionist: Jessie Sampter, Religion, and Disability” Concordia
University, Montreal, Canada, September 2019.
"Bodies: Medical Innovations and Religious Interpretations of the Body" panel, with
Hillary Kaell
Religion and Innovation. Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC, April 2019.
"What’s Reform about Reform Judaism?"
Religion and Reform Symposium. Creighton University, Omaha, NE, February 2018.
“How the Balfour Declaration Changed Everything… And Nothing: A View from the
United States”
Joan & Samuel New Institute for the Study of Judaism and the Jews, Spertus Institute
Chicago, Oct 2017.
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"Calisthenics and Cows: Creating Manly Jews in Progressive Era America" University
of Maryland, Silver Springs, MD, May 2016
"Racial Standing: How American Jews Imagine Community, and Why That Matters"
Race with Jewish Ethics, Emory University, Oct 2015.
"Half-Jewish, Just Jewish, and the Oddities of Religious Identifications"
Religion and Identity Symposium. Creighton University, Omaha, NE, February 2015.
“The Legal Birth of Religious Studies? A Judicious Look at the Roots of a Discipline"
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, October 2014.
"Genes, Race, and the Anxiety of Jewish Identity"
York University, Jewish Studies. Toronto, Canada, October 2014.
“Bad Jews and Soft Crimes: Dispatches from the Construction of Masculinity”
Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Canada, October 2014
“Members of the Tribe and Masculinity: Indian-Israelite Identification and American
Religion”
Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, October 2013.
“Men, Women, and Other Jews”
Lexington Havurah, Lexington, KY, March 2013.
Keynote Speaker
Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, Midwest Region, April 2012.
“Spines of the Sabras: Gender and Zionism in Popular American Novels” American
Religions/American Literatures, University of Illinois, October 2012.
“American Jewry in Transition”
Joan & Samuel New Institute for the Study of Judaism and the Jews, Indiana
University 2012.
“My Sons Have Defeated Me: Secular Jews and Moral Authority,”
Writing Religion: Representation, Difference, and Authority in American Culture,
University of Chicago, May 2011
Conference and Workshop Presentations (selected):
Panelist: “Women in Publishing”
American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, November 2023
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“Retelling US History: A Roundtable”
American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, November 2023
“Jessie Sampter: A Poet to Forget?”
Association of Jewish Studies, Boston, December 2022
“Gender, Genre, and American Jewish Thought: The Case of Irma Levy Lindheim”
American Academy of Religion, Denver, November 2022
“Sufferings of the Soul: The Friendship of Jessie Sampter and Mary Antin” The
History of Jewish Friendship, University of Michigan, October 2022
“Women as Zionist Thinkers”
World Congress of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University, August 2022
Panelist: “Jews of Color"
American Jewish Historical Society Conference, Tulane University, June 2022
Panelist: “Where do we go from here? Creating Responsiveness and Responsibility in
Professional Organizations”
Association for Jewish Studies, Chicago, IL. Dec 2021
Panelist: “Women in the Profession: What Have We Learned?” Association
for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA. Dec 2019.
Panelist: “Manthologies”
American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA. Nov 2019.
Panelist: “Does Religious Studies Have a Jewish Problem?” American
Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA. Nov 2019.
Panelist: Book Panel for Harshita Kamath’s Impersonations American
Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA. Nov 2019.
“A Crip Zionism? Jessie Sampter, Disability, and Gender in the Yishuv" Taube
Institute’s Jewish Studies Colloquium, Brandeis. Jan 2019.
“Jessie Sampter’s Queer Story”
Oxford Summer Institute, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Oxford
University. July 2018.
Panelist: “After Multiculturalism, Beyond Is It Good for the Jews” American
Jewish History Scholars Conference, Philadelphia, PA. June 2018.
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“The Healthy Body and Its Opposites: Bodily Norms of American Religion” Religion
and the American Normal, Princeton University. Feb 2018.
“Disability Studies Needs Religion: Lessons from a Queer Crippled Jew” American
Academy of Religion, Boston, MA. November 2017.
“Playing Cowboys and Indians: Masculinity and the American Jewish South”
Southern Jewish Historical Society, Cincinnati, OH. November 2017.
“Critical Jewish Studies: In Theory and Practice” seminar: “Jessie Sampter and the
Place of Jewish History”
Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA. December 2016.
“How Science Made Race and Religion: the Case of Jewishness in the United States”
American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX. November 2016.
“American Religion Abroad: Jessie Sampter and the Boundaries of Judaism”
American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY. June 2016.
“Graetz’s Women”
Jewish Historical Writing, Western Galilee College. Akko, Israel, March 2015.
“Afternoon Calisthenics at Woodbine: Jewish Agriculture and the Male Body,”
Association for Jewish Studies, Baltimore, MD, December 2014.
“The ‘Nones’ and the Jews”
American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA, November 2014.
“Theological Families: Jews, Messianic Jews, and the Meaning of Lineage,” with
Hillary Kaell.
Mishpachah: The Jewish Family in Tradition and in Transition. Omaha, NE, October
2014.
“American Zionism and the Masculinity Question, 1901-1914”
Biennial American Jewish History Scholars Conference. Atlanta, GA, June 2014.
“Race and the Genetic Jew”
Race and Religion in American History conference, Princeton University, March 2014.
“Manly Members of the Tribe: How Masculinity Helped Jews Become American” San
Francisco State University, February 2014.
“Race, DNA, and the Ethics of Jewish Identity”
Society for Jewish Ethics, Seattle, WA, January 2014.
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“Jewish Identities and Critical Theory: The Political Significance of Conceptual
Categories,” panel speaker
American Academy of Religion, Baltimore, MD, November 2013.
“The Creation Story, or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Schempp,”
Religious Studies 50 Years After Schempp, Indiana University Bloomington September
2013.
“Judaism’s “Removal Work”? Gender and the Landscape of American Immigration”
Actor Networks: Between Global Markets and the Nation, Freie Universitat Berlin,
Germany, August 2013.
“The Specter of Race: Biology and American Jewish Identity” American
Academy of Religion, Chicago, IL, November 2012.
“American Sabras: Gender and Midcentury Novels”
Jewish American and Holocaust Literature, Miami, FL, November 2012.
“Traces of Race: American Jewish Identity”
25
th
Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium, Omaha, NE, October 2012.
“Texas Jews and Other Others”
Organization of American Historians, Milwaukee, WI, April 2012.
“Acting Jewish: Gender on the American Stage,”
Association for Jewish Studies, Washington, DC, December 2011.
“City Jew, Country Jew”
Religion in the American West Section, American Academy of Religion Annual
Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2011.
“Constructing the American Jewish Body: Medical, Racial, and Gender Discourses”
Study of Judaism Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta,
GA, November 2010.
“Gender, Race Science, and ‘the Jew’ in Progressive Era America.”
Study of Judaism Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Montreal,
Canada, November 2009.
“After the Parliament: the Maxwell Street Settlement House.”
Women and Religion Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting.
Montreal, Canada November 2009.
“Israel as a Woman: Wordplay and the Cultural Logic of Gender in Song of Songs
Rabbah,”
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Midwest American Academy of Religion Conference. Loyola University. Chicago, IL,
April 2009.
“Naturally Unnatural? Women in Midrash”
Upper Midwest American Academy of Religion Conference. Luther Seminary. St. Paul,
MN, March 2009.
“The Feminized Jew and Virile Americanism.”
History Graduate Student Conference. Loyola University Chicago. Chicago, IL, April
2008.
"Sex Rashes and Intermarriage: Jews in the American Mind 1890-1920" Graduate
Symposium on Women's and Gender History. University of Illinois at Champaign-
Urbana. Urbana, IL, March 2008.
“Feminine Nature Shows in Nose: Jews and Gender in the American Mind, 1890–
1925”
Religion, Community, and Conflict conference. Florida State University. Tallahasse,
FL, February 2008.
Academic National/International
Service
Jewish Quarterly Review, editorial board member
(2020-present)
Nominations Committee, Association for Jewish Studies (2021-2023)
Status of Women in the Profession, Committee Member, American Academy of
Religion (2019-2022)
Task Force for Diversity and Inclusion, Task Force Member, Association for Jewish
Studies (2018-2022)
Task Force for Discipline and Dismissal, Task Force Member, Association for Jewish
Studies (2019-2020)
Men & Masculinities in Religion section, Steering Committee Member, American
Academy of Religion (2019-present)
Modern Jewish History in the Americas, Co-chair, Association for Jewish Studies
(2019-2021)
Study of Judaism section, Co-chair, American Academy of religion (2012-2018)
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Study of Judaism section, Steering Committee member, American Academy of
Religion (2010-2012)
Study of Judaism Section Chair, Midwest AAR, (2009-2015)
Co-editor, H-Judaic, international listserv for Jewish Studies (2012-2018)
Official Mentoring Programs - National/International
Association for Jewish Studies Paula Hyman Mentoring Program (2020-21; 2022-23)
Association for Jewish Studies Mentoring Program (2020-21)
American Academy of Religion Mentoring Program (2020-21)
Political Theology Mentoring Program (2020-2021)
University/Campus/College
Patten Committee (2021-present)
Campus Assessment Committee on Gender & Faculty Satisfaction (2018-2019)
College Policy Committee member (Fall 2020)
Academic Fairness Committee member (2018-2021)
CAHI graduate grant applications evaluator (2015-16)
Strategic Planning Committee member – Integrated Arts & Humanities (fall 2013)
Department
Director of Graduate Studies, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University
(2014-present)
College Diversity Chair (Jewish Studies 2020-21, Religious Studies 2021-22)
Co-Chair, Revising T&P Documents, Religious Studies (fall 2021)
Member, Community and Engagement Committee, Religious Studies (fall 2019)
Chair, Teaching Excellence Committee, Religious Studies (2018-19)
Chair, Community and Engagement Committee, Religious Studies (2016-17)
Graduate Committee, Religious Studies (2016-17; 2017-18; 2022-23)
Graduate Committee, Jewish Studies (2022-23; 21-22; 20-21; 19-20; 18-19; 17-18;
16-17; 15-16; 14-15; 13-14)
Faculty Affairs Committee, Jewish Studies (2015-16; 14-15; 12-13)
Languages Reading and speaking knowledge of Modern Hebrew.
Reading knowledge of French, German, Spanish, and Rabbinic Aramaic.
Limited reading knowledge of Yiddish.
Affiliations American Academy of Religion
Association for Jewish Studies
Society for Jewish Ethics
Sarah Imhoff 21
