WELCOME TO WOMEN'S STUDIES AT NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
FOUNDED IN 1981
Note from Women's Studies Program Director, Dr. Debra R. Kaufman: Dear Colleagues,
If you wonder why women's and men's historical roles are changing, how gender is expressed in the workplace and at home, or what kinds of challenges women around the world face today, consider taking courses offered by Northeastern University's Women's Studies Program. The Women’s Studies Program is an interdisciplinary program, with an undergraduate minor, designed to critically re-examine the traditional body of knowledge about women and men’s roles from a feminist perspective. We also offer a women’s studies certificate at the graduate level in cooperation with and participation in Boston’s Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies. Both undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to work closely with faculty, learning by actively participating in gender research. I encourage you to explore our website and see for yourself the many possibilities available through our Women's Studies Program. We hope you will participate in our many activities throughout the year. I welcome your questions and comments. Please contact me directly at: dkaufman@neu.edu or 617.373.4270.
Sincerely,Dr. Debra R. Kaufman
Debra Renee Kaufman is the Director of Women’s Studies, Professor of Sociology and a Matthews Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University. She founded Northeastern’s Women's Studies Program and was its first Director for ten years. In 1992, she helped to found Northeastern’s Jewish Studies Program and was its Director for 8 years. She is an editorial board member of several journals including: Nashim: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues and Contemporary Jewry. She is an active participant in the Boston academic community as a member of the Graduate Consortium for Women’s Studies at MIT where she has developed and taught courses on feminist methodology; and as a reviewer for the Boston Jewish Film Festival Annual Catalogue of Reviews of the World’s Best Contemporary Films on Jewish Themes. She is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of The Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women at Brandeis University and a member of the International Academic Advisory Board of the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Center for the Study of Women in Judaism, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Her recent books, chapters and articles related to Jewish identity, memory and/or the Holocaust include her most recent co-edited volume: From the Protocols of Zion to the Holocaust Denial Trials: Challenging the Media, the Law and the Academy (Vallentine-Mitchell, 2007); guest editor of a special edition of Contemporary Jewry, entitled "Women, Scholarship and the Holocaust"; numerous chapters in edited volumes with such titles as : "The Place of Judaism in American Jewish Identity";" Post-Holocaust Memory: Some Gendered Reflections"; "Better the Devil You Know and Other Contemporary Identity Narratives: Comparing Orthodox to Reform Judaism"; "Post Holocaust Identity Narratives: A Sociological Approach to Collective Consciousness, Memory and History"; and several journal articles, such as : "Renaming Violence"; and "Embedded Categories: Identity among Jewish Young Adults in the United States". Her award nominated books include: Rachel's Daughters (Rutgers University Press, nominated for three awards, 1991; second paperback edition reprinted in 1993; chapter three reprinted in Total Immersion) and Achievement and Women (co-authored with Barbara Richardson, The Free Press, C.Wright Mills, honorable mention 1982).
ARTICLES:
Embedded Categories: Identity Among Jewish Young Adults in the U.S.
Engendering Family Theory: Toward a Feminist-Interpretive Framework
My Mother's Daughter, My Daughter's Mother: Intergenerational Conflict and Decision Making among Newly Orthodox Jewish Women