PhD Candidate Melissa Young has recently been awarded the 2018-2019 Rabbi Joachim Prinz Memorial Fellowship. As part of her fellowship, Melissa will spend a month at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio. She will conduct research for a chapter of her dissertation and share her work as part of an open AJA seminar in the summer.

Melissa’s dissertation focuses on the important role Birmingham’s Jews played in the city’s development from 1871-1950. It highlights how they carved a space for their community by continually remaking their reputation in relation to fluid southern tropes. This allowed them to reject prevalent stereotypes, promote a strong Jewish identity, and respond rapidly to global crises associated with increased nativism, the Great Depression, and the Holocaust.  

When Melissa travels to Cincinnati, she will connect Birmingham Jews’ language and behavior to Jewish communities who used similar strategies in Atlanta, Memphis, and Nashville. She is excited about her research and can’t wait to see what she will discover!