Natan MeirNatan M. Meir, Lorry I. Lokey Chair in Judaic Studies
Contact:
(503) 725-4038
meir@pdx.edu
Office: UCB 465C
Website: www.natanmeir.com
Courses Taught
JST/HST 318U: Jewish History II from the Middle Ages to the Present
WLL 319U: Yiddish Folklore and Culture
HST 371: Queerness and Difference in European History
JST/HST 372: History of Antisemitism
HST 491/492: Colloquium and Seminar in East European Jewish History (The Shtetl)
Course Syllabi for Past Terms
Documents forthcoming
About
From his groundbreaking research on the Jews of Eastern Europe to his work as a consultant for Moscow’s Jewish Museum, Professor Natan Meir has earned an international reputation as a scholar of Jewish social, cultural, and religious history. His latest book, Stepchildren of the Shtetl: The Destitute, Disabled, and Mad of Jewish Eastern Europe, 1800-1939, which was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award, recovers the histories of Jewish Eastern Europe’s social outcasts -- the disabled, the mentally ill, orphans, and beggars. He is currently engaged in a new project on folklore, magic, and gender in European Jewish culture. He strives to make his classroom an inspiring intellectual space. He also speaks or reads eight languages, leads study tours of Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and is probably pondering questions of historical causality—and what to make for dinner—while trail-running.
Degrees
Ph.D. Jewish History, Columbia University, 2004
M.Phil. Jewish History, Columbia University, 1999
B.A. History, Columbia University, 1994
Research Interests
Social and cultural history of East and East-Central European Jewry
Modern European Jewish history
History of subaltern and marginalized groups
Representative Publications
Stepchildren of the Shtetl: The Destitute, Disabled, and Mad of Jewish Eastern Europe, 1800-1939 (Stanford University Press, 2020).
Kiev, Jewish Metropolis: A History, 1859-1914 (Indiana University Press, 2010).
Anti-Jewish Violence: Rethinking the Pogrom in East European History, co-editor (Indiana University Press, 2010).
Public History Projects
Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow (member of academic advisory committee, author of all museum text)
Presentations
Binah: Ukranian Jews and Putin's War on Ukraine
Interview with Natan Meir on K-ALW. Dr. Meir discusses the complex historical relationship between Russia and Ukraine and its impact on Ukraine's Jewry. Published April 14, 2022
Explaining Russia's War on Ukraine
Professor Natan Meir provides history and geopolitical context for the current war in Ukraine. This talk was hosted by the Jewish Federation of Portland on March 2, 2022.