Shira E. Schwartz

Shira E. Schwartz is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Northwestern University, specializing in late antique rabbinic studies, contemporary Orthodox and ex-Orthodox Judaism, and queer/trans religious identities. Her interdisciplinary work combines textual analysis, phenomenology, and bioethnography to explore gender, sexuality, and space in minoritized religious communities. She holds a BA from Yeshiva University, an MA in Comparative Literature from UC Davis, and a PhD in Comparative Literature with a Judaic Studies certificate from the University of Michigan.

• Education: BA Yeshiva University → MA UC Davis → PhD University of Michigan (Comparative Literature)

Her research bridges humanities and social/biomedical sciences, focusing on religious and gendered crossers, hormonal ethnography, and educational environments as sites of religious reproduction. Notable projects include 'Yeshiva Quirls: A Textual Ethnography of Jewish Reproduction' and 'Religion as Hormone.' She has organized workshops like 'Unorthodox Media' analyzing Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life.

• Awards: AJS Grants, Jewish Education Network Support, Humanities Without Walls

Teaching emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to religion, sexuality, media, and medicine. Previously served as the inaugural Phyllis Backer Professor of Jewish Studies at Syracuse University and held fellowships at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and the University of Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities.