Agnieszka Legutko

Agnieszka Legutko is a Lecturer in Yiddish in the Department of Germanic Languages at Columbia University. She is affiliated with the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, dedicated to academic exploration of Jewish culture and history. Her teaching spans Yiddish language courses at all levels and specialized topics like Magic and Monsters in Yiddish Literature and Yiddish New York: Literature, Culture, and Space.

Her research focuses on modern Yiddish literature, gender studies, and digital humanities. Key projects include creating online databases like Mapping Yiddish New York and The Grosbard Project, and completing a manuscript analyzing the dybbuk motif in Jewish cultures. She also authored Kraków’s Kazimierz: Town of Partings and Returns, a historical guide to the Jewish Quarter of Kraków.

Her articles explore intersections of trauma, memory, and performance in Jewish culture, with recent works examining Yiddish language preservation through digital tools and the dybbuk’s role in identity narratives. She advocates for integrating technology in language education and has contributed to studies on gender representation in Yiddish poetry.

On leave Spring 2025.