Michal Friedman

Michal Friedman is an Assistant Professor and Jack Buncher Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies at Carnegie Mellon University's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her scholarship bridges Jewish diasporic history and Iberian studies, with a focus on Sephardi communities and Spain's contested engagement with its Jewish past. She has developed interdisciplinary collaborations with CMU's School of Drama and Entertainment Technology Center for public history projects, including a theatrical production and Belgrade Jewish neighborhood walking tour app tied to Centropa Archive oral histories.

Her research interrogates Spain's neocolonial designs in Morocco/Balkans and the ambivalent mobilization of Sephardi heritage in political movements like Zionism and Fascism. She co-founded the Genealogies of Sepharad network, advancing comparative analyses of Sephardi identity. Current projects examine 21st-century Spanish citizenship campaigns for Sephardi descendants and modern antisemitism in the context of Holocaust memorialization.

Dr. Friedman's publications span journals like Jewish Quarterly Review and edited volumes including The Routledge Companion to Jewish History and Historiography. She teaches courses on Jewish diaspora, Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations, and 20th-century European history, emphasizing public engagement through digital humanities and oral history projects.