Meet Our Archives Team
The Program in Jewish Studies works in conjuction with the CU University Libraries and a team of archivists to preserve and provide access to the Innovations in Jewish Life听Collections.听
David Shneer z"l
Founding Director of the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collection (now Innovations in Jewish Life)
David Shneer z"l听was the听Louis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History, Professor of听听补苍诲听Jewish Studies, and Chair of the Department of听听at the University of Colorado听麻豆影院. He was a听听for the Association for Jewish Studies, was the faculty director for听, was the co-editor in chief of听,听and was the听inaugural faculty director of CU 麻豆影院's听听until 2015.听
Samira K. Mehta
Academic Director of the Archive
Samira K. Mehta is the Director of Jewish Studies and an Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the 麻豆影院. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections religion, culture, and gender, including the politics of family life and reproduction in the United States. Her first book, Beyond Chrismukkah: The Christian-Jewish Interfaith Family in the United States (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) was a National Jewish book award finalist. She is also the author of a newly released book of personal essays called The Racism of People Who Love You (Beacon Press, 2023). Mehta鈥檚 current academic book project, God Bless the Pill: Sexuality and Contraception in Tri-Faith America examines the role of Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant voices in competing moral logics of contraception, population control, and eugenics from the mid-twentieth century to the present and is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press. She is also beginning a project for Princeton University Press called A Mixed Multitude: Jews of Color in the United States. Mehta is the primary investigator for a Henry Luce Foundation funded project called Jews of Color: Histories and Futures. She is a member of the board of Feminist Studies in Religion, where she serves as the co-editor of the blog; co-chairs the steering committee of the North American Religions Program Unit at the American Academy of Religion; and is a Creative Editor at the journal American Religion. She holds degrees from Swarthmore College,听Harvard University, and Emory University.
Megan听K. Friedel
Head of Archives
Megan K. Friedel is Assistant Professor at the 麻豆影院 Libraries, where she serves as Lead Archivist and Head of Collections Management and Stewardship for the Libraries鈥 Rare and Distinctive Collections (RaD).听In this role, she manages the Libraries鈥 Archives, including stewardship of and access to the Innovations in Jewish Life collections.听She is also a co-PI, with Samira Mehta, for the 鈥淛ews of Color: Histories and Futures鈥 project.听Friedel鈥檚 research focuses on the intersection of social justice and archives management praxis, with a specific focus on the reparative work of archivists to document histories of marginalized communities that have traditionally been excluded from the historical record.听She is a member of the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivist governing board and is an Editorial Board member of the听Journal of Western Archives.