Degrees:
Ph.D., Brandeis Univ.
M.A., Jewish Theological Seminary
B.A., Univ. California-Los Angeles
Benjamin Steiner is a scholar of American Judaism who completed his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University in 2020. He earned a master’s degree in Jewish Women’s and Gender Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2014 and a bachelor’s degree in history at UCLA in 2012.
Steiner’s first book, currently under publication review, investigates translations of Jewish marriage contracts (ketubot) into English to illuminate how Jews ensured the economic security of married Jewish women under secular law, how Judaism was received by curious non-Jewish audiences, and how Jewish marriage contracts enshrined gender role expectations of the day. He has also published peer-reviewed articles on Judaism in postwar America.
In the classroom, Steiner prioritizes student engagement by probing the building blocks of critical reading. What argument was put forth? Was it convincing? What work is it doing? How does it link to the broader literature? At its best, academic literature is not just a chronicle of facts; it is about how one organizes facts in the service of a compelling argument. |