Riv-Ellen Prell

Educational Background & Specialties

Educational Background

• Ph.D.: Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1977.
• M.A.: Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1973.
• B.A.: Anthropology, Religious Studies, University of Southern California, 1970.

Curriculum Vitae

Specialties

• anthropology of America
• popular culture in the United States
• gender and ethnicity in the United States
• cultural studies of American Jews and Judaism

Courses Taught

• AmSt 8801 - Dissertation Seminar
• AmSt 3252 - Politics in Popular Culture in the U.S. 1900-1945
• JwSt 2363/WoSt 3403 - Jewish Women in America
• Anth 5131 - Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion
• Historical Foundations in American Studies
• American Studies Senior Seminar

Research & Professional Activities

Professional Activities

• Bronfman Distinguished Visting Professor of Jewish Studies, College of William and Mary:
• Fellow: Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania , 2003 - 2004
• Editor: Perspectives, the newsletter of the Association for Jewish Studies , 2003 - 2006
• Chair: Department of American Studies , Fall 2004 - 2008
• Director, Center for Jewish Studies: 2013 - 2016
• Chair, Academic Advisory Board: American Jewish Historical Society , 2014 - 2017

Publications

• Women Remaking American Judaism. Prell, Riv-Ellen, Wayne State U Press, Editor, 2007.
• Fighting to Become Americans: Jews, Gender and the Anxiety of Assimilation. Prell, Riv-Ellen, Beacon Press, 1999.
• Prayer and Community: the Havurah in American Judaism. Prell, Riv-Ellen, Wayne State U Press, 1989.
• Interpreting Women's Lives: Personal Narrative and Feminist Theory. Prell, Riv-Ellen, Indiana U Press, 1989.
• 2012 “Boundaries, Margins, and, Norms: The Intellectual Stakes in the Study of American Jewish Culture(s).”: Prell, Riv-Ellen, Contemporary Jewry, 189-204, 2011.
• “A Serious Man in Situ: ‘Fear and Loathing in St. Louis Park’”: Prell, Riv-Ellen, AJS Review: The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies, 35 365-376, 2011.

Awards

• National Jewish Book Award, 1989
• M Sklare Award for Distinguished Research, ASSJ, 2011
• Scholar of the College, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, 2002 - 2005
• Fesler-Lampert Chair in Public Humanities,, 2002 - 2003