KU News Release

KU names new Beren Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish Studies

Lynn Davidman

LAWRENCE — An internationally recognized sociologist and a founder of interdisciplinary Jewish women’s studies has been appointed the Robert M. Beren Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of Kansas.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences announced today that Lynn Davidman will join the faculty of the departments of religious studies and sociology in August. Davidman, who lives in Providence, R.I., most recently was a professor of Judaic studies, American civilization and gender studies at Brown University.

“We are delighted to have a scholar the caliber of Lynn Davidman join our department,” said Bill Staples, chair of the Department of Sociology. “Her interests will strengthen and compliment a number of our teaching and research areas, especially in gender, religion and qualitative methods.”

Davidman received her doctorate from Brandeis University in 1986. She has published three books with major university presses: “Tradition in a Rootless World” (University of California Press, 1991), which won a National Jewish Book Award; “Motherloss” (University of Calif Press, 2000); and “Feminist Perspectives in Jewish Studies” (Yale, 2004), co-edited with Shelly Tenenbaum. Her research offering the feminist perspectives of Jewish studies has appeared in a variety of prestigious journals such as Sociology of Religion and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Davidman serves on the advisory board of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University and is a member of the editorial board for Qualitative Sociology.

“My new job at the University of Kansas provides me with a rare and special opportunity to combine and exercise my multiple interests, skills and methodologies in a supportive environment committed to the development of a high level of interdisciplinary programs and research,” Davidman said. “I am honored to be appointed the Beren Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish Studies and the director of the Program in Jewish Studies. I bring with me great energy and enthusiasm as well as a vision of the ‘transdisciplinary department’ — blending multiple disciplines in a way that creates a new approach, discourse and methods. I hope to create together with the current and future faculty. I believe that KU and I will mutually benefit from our intersecting needs and goals and I am eager to get started.”

The Robert M. Beren Foundation of Wichita gave $500,000 to KU Endowment to create the professorship in September 2003. KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

The professorship is part of an ongoing effort to diversify the study of world religions and the humanities at KU. A matching $500,000 gift was provided from the Hall Family Foundation of Kansas City, Mo.

Robert Beren, a longtime Wichita resident who now lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Business School. He is owner and chairman of Berexco Inc., an oil and gas exploration company based in Kansas and is chairman of Beren Corp., an oil and gas production and securities investment company. His foundation provides grants in higher education, human services and Jewish organizations, among others.

The Hall Family Foundation provided $2.5 million in 2001 to KU to match contributions for endowed chairs in the humanities, such as the Beren professorship. The gift was part of a $42 million gift for KU from the foundation, the largest private gift for a college or university in Kansas history.

“We are pleased to partner with Mr. Beren to advance the humanities at KU and to attract a scholar of the caliber of Lynn Davidman,” said Bill Hall, Hall Family Foundation president.

The professorship qualifies for additional support through the Faculty of Distinction Program, created by the state of Kansas to encourage private gifts that help Board of Regents institutions attract and retain faculty members of distinction. The program applies to gifts of $500,000 or more for endowed professorships.

“Lynn brings to this position an excellent and creative record of interdisciplinary scholarship and a commitment to teaching and mentoring students and junior faculty,” said Cheryl Lester, director of American studies and chair of the Beren Search Committee. “She studies Judaism and Jewish life as a sociologist, and she studies people who change their Jewish identity — by joining or by leaving orthodox Jewish communities — and examines how they tell their life stories.”

“Lynn Davidman is a foremost scholar in modern Jewish studies whose work intersects the disciplines of sociology, religious studies, Jewish studies, women and gender studies, and race, religion and ethnicity,” said Joseph E. Steinmetz, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “She will have a significant transformational impact on the Jewish studies program and on our students here at KU.”

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