Dr. Susan Glenn

Biography

Susan Glenn is a Professor and the Samuel Althea Stroum Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1983. Her research focuses on twentieth-century U.S. cultural, intellectual, and social history, with a particular interest in the foundations and transformations of group identities. Glenn's work explores how groups define and reshape their understandings and representations over time through various social, cultural, and institutional sources. Her book, 'Daughters of the Shtetl: Life and Labor of the Immigrant Generation,' which won the American Historical Association's Joan Kelly Memorial Prize, analyzes the social and political upheavals that led to the migration of Eastern European Jews to the United States between 1880 and 1920. She further investigates the impact of Jewish gender, ethnicity, and labor on emerging identities, particularly of Jewish immigrant women in the garment industry. Additionally, her book, 'Female Spectacle: Theatrical Roots of Modern Feminism,' examines the cultural significance of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century popular theater as a site for women's social authority. Her recent research includes American responses to the rise of fascism and the Holocaust, as well as the complexities of Jewish self-representation through the twentieth century. Glenn co-edited the volume 'Boundaries of Jewish Identity,' which explores struggles to define Jewish identity in various contexts. She has held distinguished fellowships and served key roles in historical organizations, contributing significantly to the fields of Jewish history and women's studies.

Research Interests

Courses