{"id":6,"date":"2011-07-15T16:12:03","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T16:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/bio\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T06:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:10:28","slug":"bio","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/bio\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Shaul<\/p>\n

Shaul Kelner is Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University, and past director of Vanderbilt\u2019s Program in Jewish Studies. His research explores how American Jews forge solidarity with Jewish communities abroad\u2014from Cold War campaigns to free Soviet Jews to contemporary Birthright Israel tours\u2014and how those efforts reshape American Jewish identity and culture.<\/p>\n

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Research<\/h2>\n

His newest book, A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews<\/em><\/a> (NYU Press, 2024), was written with grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and won a National Jewish Book Award.<\/p>\n

His first book, Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage and Israeli Birthright Tourism<\/em><\/a> (NYU Press, 2010), won the Association for Jewish Studies\u2019 inaugural Jordan Schnitzer Book Award and received an Honorable Mention for the American Sociological Association Culture Section\u2019s Mary Douglas Prize.<\/p>\n

As a sociologist, Prof. Kelner works across subfields, drawing together the study of cultural production and consumption, travel and tourism, social movements, religion, education, diaspora, and youth. An enthusiast for mixed methods, he has conducted ethnographic fieldwork, designed and analyzed surveys, published statistical and social network analyses, conducted oral history interviews, and engaged extensively in archival research.<\/p>\n

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Fellowships & Appointments<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • \u2022 Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Resident Scholar, 2025<\/li>\n
  • \u2022 Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute for Advanced Studies, Fellow<\/li>\n
  • \u2022 University of Michigan, Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, Fellow<\/li>\n
  • \u2022 Tel Aviv University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Visiting Scholar<\/li>\n
  • \u2022 Vanderbilt University, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Fellow, 2017\u201318<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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    Education<\/h2>\n
      \n
    • \u2022 Ph.D., Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, 2002 (Wexner Graduate Fellow)<\/li>\n
    • \u2022 B.A., Political Communication & Judaic Studies, summa cum laude<\/em>, George Washington University, 1992<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      <\/div>\n

      Service<\/h2>\n

      Board member, Association for Jewish Studies and Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. Chair of the selection committee for the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, which he held as a graduate student.<\/p>\n

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      Teaching<\/h2>\n

      During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vanderbilt\u2019s College of Arts and Science recognized Prof. Kelner with an Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching. His courses include the only university course on the Soviet Jewry movement offered in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Shaul Kelner is Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University, and past director of Vanderbilt\u2019s Program in Jewish Studies. His research explores how American Jews forge solidarity with Jewish communities abroad\u2014from Cold War campaigns to free Soviet Jews to contemporary Birthright Israel tours\u2014and how those efforts reshape American Jewish identity and culture. Research…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":890,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/shaulkelner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}