معرفی
Monica Najar is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Lehigh University, where she currently serves as Director of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program and previously directed the Lehigh University Press. Her academic work centers on intersections of gender, religion, and state formation in late eighteenth and nineteenth century America.
Educational background:
- Ph.D. in U.S. and U.S. Women's History, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2000)
- M.A. in U.S. and U.S. Women's History, University of Wisconsin, Madison (1992)
- B.A. in History, University of California, Berkeley (1990)
Professor Najar specializes in North American Social and Cultural History with emphases on Religious History, History of US Women and Gender, Sexuality in the U.S., and the Early American Republic. Her research examines how religious institutions shaped social structures and individual experiences, particularly through her current book project analyzing Maria Monk's anti-Catholic narrative Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu and its cultural impact in antebellum America.
Her publications from 2005-2011 demonstrate consistent scholarly engagement with Baptist history in the American South, revealing complex relationships between religious authority, slavery, and women's roles. These works collectively explore how faith communities navigated social change while influencing political developments in early America, with particular attention to marginalized voices and contested power structures.
Professor Najar teaches courses spanning women's history, gender studies, sexuality, family history, the American early republic, Civil War era, and foundational Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies curriculum.
