Ari Kelman
ARI KELMAN, associate professor of American Studies at the University of California-Davis, has been named the inaugural Jim Joseph Chair in Education and Jewish Studies. Kelman will lead the new academic Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies and will facilitate collaborations between the School of Education and the Taube Center for Jewish Studies.
Kelman is widely recognized as a leading scholar of contemporary Jewish life, with an emphasis on media, ethnic identity and American religious culture. He is the author of two books—Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio and Sacred Strategies—and the editor of Is Diss a System: a Milt Gross Comic Reader.
Lee Shulman, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor Emeritus of Education, said, “The study of how personal and social identity develops and how it affects civic engagement, educational aspirations and group membership has become a central topic of educational research. Kelman’s appointment strengthens ongoing work at Stanford on the interactions of religion, ethnicity, identity and education, and may well prefigure future growth in this area.”
Added Steven Weitzman, director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, “Dr. Kelman’s research places him on the cutting edge of Jewish thought today, and my colleagues and I are thrilled to be able to collaborate with him. We are excited by what it means to have one of the world’s leading schools of education addressing such issues.”
The chair and concentration are the result of a $12 million gift from the Jim Joseph Foundation. The gift, the largest in the history of the School of Education, endowed the chair and will provide fellowships for graduate students.
Read the School of Education press release.
