I am a cultural anthropologist with teaching and research interests in the anthropology of cultural change, diasporas, ethnicity, gender, religion and ritual, music, folklore and life stories. My areas of specialization are comparative Jewish cultures, South Asia, and contemporary Israel.  I’m also coordinator of Jewish Studies, an interdisciplinary program offering a variety of courses for students in many disciplines, and a Jewish Studies minor. 

Immediately after graduating from OberlinCollege with a BA in history, I had the good fortune to spend two years teaching English at a women’s college in South India, where I learned much more than I taught! Remembering this experience as a highlight of my early education, I enthusiastically encourage IC students to spend time living and learning in cultures different from their own. I have since lived an additional two years in India and two years in Israel, and have made many shorter research trips to both countries.

I have an MA in religion from Smith College and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts.   Before coming to Ithaca College in 1990, I taught at Keene State University in New Hampshire and Goddard College in Vermont.

My research centers on an ancient community of Jews in the Indian state of Kerala, the “Cochin Jews”, whom I first met while I was living in India.   I’ve devoted more than 30 years to research on their ethnohistory, on changes and continuities in their community life as they migrated to Israel, and on the women’s culture of the community, most recently concentrating on their folk songs. 

Among my publications are an ethnographic life story, Ruby of Cochin: An Indian Jewish Woman Remembers, co-authored with the late Ruby Daniel (Jewish Publication Society, 1995), and a new CD and book, Oh, Lovely Parrot!: Jewish Women’s Songs from Kerala (The Jewish Music Research Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2004). 

During the Spring 2006 semester I will take a research leave to participate in a conference in India on the Kerala Jews, and to continue my work in Israel in association with the Jewish Music Research Center and the Ben-Zvi Institute at HebrewUniversity.