Index#: 03724
Will Count Towards Jewish Studies MAJOR
Will Count Towards Jewish Studies MINOR
New York’s Lower East Side may be the most studied and storied neighborhood in America. Since its emergence as the city’s most densely populated immigrant neighborhood in the mid-19th century, the Lower East Side has been the subject of extensive scrutiny by journalists, reformers, photographers, urban planners, and of creative engagements by visual artists, poets, novelists, and filmmakers. Over the past century and a half the Lower East Side has witnessed waves of demographic shifts and changes to its infrastructure, and its image has been transformed from a locus of poverty, crime, and social turmoil to a site of American heritage tourism and urban gentrification. This seminar will trace the neighborhood’s trajectory through an interdisciplinary approach to an array of materials, including a field visit to the neighborhood.
About Professor Shandler
Jeffrey Shandler is Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. He received a PhD in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University and has held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University. Shandler has also been a visiting scholar at the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Center, Tel Aviv University; the Center for Religion and Media, New York University; the Jewish Studies Program, University of California Berkeley; the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation; the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University; the Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University; and the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania.