Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Professor of Performance Studies and of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, is one of the world's foremost folklorists. A stimulating and original scholar, she has explored such topics as Jewish performance, folklore, and ethnography, museum culture, food and performance, tourism, and the aesthetics of everyday life using a variety of interdisciplinary methodologies. her most recent book, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage (1998) discusses the powerful messages conveyed not only by objects shown but also by specific techniques of display. She is also the co-author of Image Before My Eyes: A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland, 1864-1939  (reissued 1995), a path-breaking account of Eastern European Jewish life. Current projects include Investigating Jews, an intellectual history of anthropological interest in Jews, to be published by Indiana University Press; and Exhibiting Jews, a study of Jewish participation in world's fairs from 1851-1940. She recently completed Painted Memories: A Jewish Childhood in Poland before the Holocaust with Mayer Kirshenblatt. 

Location: Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center

Date: October 2, 2002, 7:30 pm

This lecture is made possible by the generous Krouse Family Visiting Scholars Fund in Judaism and Western Culture.