(Photo Credit: Rosen-Jones Photography)

I am a scholar of modern Judaism and American religions. My work is especially interested in exploring how religion has been shaped by the complexities of space and place. My first book, Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-century America (New York University Press, 2017), was the winner of the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies and a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. I am currently writing a history of Jews, religion, and race in the U.S. South, from the seventeenth-century to the present day. In the 2021-2022 academic year, I am on sabbatical, thanks to the generosity of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

I am currently an associate professor of Jewish studies and religion at Oberlin College. I was previously assistant professor of Jewish studies and director of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston. I co-directed the 2019 NEH Summer Institute for College and University Professors, “Privilege and Prejudice: Jewish History in the American South.”

I grew up in Shorewood, Wisconsin, and Marietta, Georgia, and earned a B.A. in religion (summa cum laude with distinction) from Boston University. I received a PhD in religious studies from Yale University in 2015.

You can follow me on Twitter at @sharirabin