Natan Meir
Natan 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
JST/HST 372: History of Antisemitism
HST 491/492: The Shtetl (two-term upper-level History seminar
Course Syllabi for Past Terms
Documents forthcoming
About
A scholar of the social, cultural, and religious history of East European Jewry, Natan Meir is the author of Kiev, Jewish Metropolis: A History, 1859-1914 (2010) and Stepchildren of the Shtetl: The Destitute, Disabled, and Mad of Jewish Eastern Europe, 1800-1939 (2020). He lectures widely on Jewish history and culture in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and the Baltics; Jewish folklore and magic; and Jewish disability history. He also serves as a museum consultant. He is now working on a study of lived Judaism that explores the persistence of folk traditions and magical practices in the lives of ordinary Jews, with particular attention to gender and the body.
Degrees
Ph.D. Jewish History, Columbia University, 2004
M.Phil. Jewish History, Columbia University, 1999
B.A. History, Columbia University, 1994
Research Interests
Social, cultural, and religious history of East and East-Central European Jewry
Modern European Jewish history
American and Canadian Jewish history
History of subaltern and marginalized groups
History of disability
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
The Zekelman Holocaust Center, Farmington Hills, MI (scriptwriter and consultant for new permanent exhibition)
Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow (member of academic advisory committee, author of all museum text)