معرفی
Jordan Katz is an Assistant Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, specializing in early modern Jewish history with emphases on cultural history, medical history, and gender studies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Her research centers on Jewish midwives' roles in Ashkenazic communities, examining their medical influence, engagement with administrative knowledge systems, and intellectual status within male-dominated leadership structures. She investigates how specialized expertise created cross-cultural pathways between Christians and Jews, and across Jewish socioeconomic classes, revealing previously unstudied dimensions of early modern European knowledge systems and authority structures.
Professor Katz's publications demonstrate consistent interdisciplinary focus on Jewish medical practices, gender dynamics, and legal autonomy in early modern Europe. Her work bridges historical, religious, and gender studies through analysis of midwifery, halakhic expertise, and communal sovereignty, with recurring themes of knowledge transmission and intercultural exchange.
Scientific Awards and Fellowships:
- Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Fellowship
- Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine Fellowship
- Center for Jewish History Fellowship
- Leo Baeck Fellowship Programme
Professor Katz has developed specialized courses including The Jewish Experience I: Ancient to Medieval, Interfaith Relations: Jews and Christians in the Early Modern World, Jews, Medicine, and Healing in the Premodern World, and Family and Sexuality in Jewish History and Culture, reflecting her research expertise in medical history and gender studies within Jewish contexts.
