Faculty Leaders

Ari Kelman

Jim Joseph Chair in Education and Jewish Studies and associate professor of religious studies (by courtesy)

Ari Kelman’s research expertise lies at the intersection of education and Jewish studies, with an emphasis on the myriad ways in which people cultivate ethnic and religious identities and practices.

His research focuses on questions of culture in all its manifestations including the material, aural, visual, and ideological. Currently he is researching the culture of contemporary evangelical worship music, and compiling his findings in a book that examines how songwriters, worship leaders, and music industry professionals understand the role of songs as both vehicles for and practices of faith and identity.

He is also working on a collection of essays entitled Learning to be Jewish, that takes a case study approach to questions about how people learn to be Jewish. The book will take an interdisciplinary approach to a variety of sites from Fiddler on the Roof to the Crackow Jewish Festival.

Learning to be Jewish approaches its subjects with a sense that much of how people understand themselves in relation to Jewish communities, beliefs, practices, and texts is learned well beyond formal and informal educational structures.