Cara Rock-Singer
323B Morrill Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850
Email: cdr92@cornell.edu
Telephone: (914) 714-3551
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Visiting Lecturer 2017-2018
Joint Appointment in the Departments of Near Eastern Studies (Jewish Studies Program) and Science and Technology Studies
EDUCATION
Columbia University, New York, NY Ph.D. 2018
Ph.D. in Religion, North America Religions Subfield
Dissertation: “Prophetesses of the Body: American Jewish Feminism and The Politics of Embodied Knowledge”
General Exams: American Religious History (Pre-Civil War and Post-Civil War); Science and Religion; Theory and Method in the Study of Religion; Theories of Religious Transmission
The Conservative Yeshiva, Jerusalem, Israel 2013-2014
Primary Source Study of the Jewish Textual Tradition
Subjects: Tanakh, Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, Halacha, Biblical Hebrew Grammar, Liturgy, Judaism and Gender
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel 2011, 2013
Summer Ulpan (Hebrew Language Course)
Levels: Aleph (2011), Dalet (2013)
Oxford University, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, England 2009-2010
M.St., Theology (Religion and Science)
Honors: Distinction
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 2005-2009
Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology; Quantitative Computational Biology Certificate (Minor)
Cumulative GPA: 3.775; Major GPA: 4.07
Honors: Summa Cum Laude; Phi Beta Kappa; Sigma Xi (Science Research Society)
Thesis: Swi/Snf Chromatin Remodeling in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Global Gene Expression and Nucleosome Positioning upon Glucose Starvation
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Refereed Journal Articles
“A Prophetic Guide for a Perplexed World: Louis Finkelstein and the 1940 Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion.” Accepted contingent upon revisions in Religion and American Culture
Multi-Author Journal Articles
“A New System for Comparative Functional Genomics of Saccharomyces Yeast.” Genetics, September 2013
“Chromatin remodelers clear nucleosomes from intrinsically unfavorable sites to establish nucleosome-depleted regions at promoters.” Molecular Biology of the Cell, 22(12), 15 June 2011
Book Chapters
“Chicken Soup: Women and the Making of the Modern Jewish Home and Nation.” Beyond Chicken Soup: Jews and Medicine in America, Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2016
Book Reviews
“Review: The Territories of Science and Religion by Peter Harrison.” The Revealer: A Review of Religion and Media, New York University, 19 February 2016
AWARDS AND HONORS
Second NA’AMAT USA Research Fellowship in Honor of Elizabeth J. Raider 2017
AJS Women’s Caucus Innovative Scholarship in Gender and Jewish Studies Prize 2017
Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry Travel Grant 2016
Bernard and Muriel Bloom Fellowship 2016
Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University
The Center for Science and Society Seed Grant, Columbia University 2015-2016
Lead Teaching Fellow, Columbia University 2015-2016
Academic Year Teaching Scholar, Columbia University 2015-2016
Teagle Teaching Fellow, Columbia University 2014-2015
Summer Teaching Scholar, Columbia University 2014
Foreign Language Area Studies Summer Fellowship for Hebrew 2012
Blair Senior Thesis Award, Molecular Biology, Princeton University 2009
Highest Academic Achievement Prize, Quantitative Computational Biology, Princeton University 2009
Best Senior Thesis Prize, Quantitative Computational Biology, Princeton University 2009
INVITED TALKS
“The Jewish Body Multiple: The Modern Mikveh Movement and the Creation of Secular Jewish Subjects,” Princeton University, Religion Department, December 6, 2016
“Our Bodies Our Health: Jewish Women's Healing Rituals,” Jewish Museum of Maryland, 6 November 2016
“Ethnographic Fieldwork: Using Film to Bring the Field into the Classroom,” Innovative Teaching Summer Institute, Columbia University, 14 July 2016
CONFERENCE ACTIVITY
“Jewish Women’s Healing and Medicine: Ancient to Contemporary Traditions,” Association for Jewish Studies, Washington, DC, December 2017
“Relational Technologies: Queer Bodies Performing Ritual Art,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Cultural History of the Study of Religion Unit and Science, Technology, and Religion Unit; Boston, MA, November 2017
“Pregnant in the Field” Roundtable Participant, Upcoming at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Anthropology of Religion Unit; Boston, MA, November 2017
“Breaking Taboos” Panelist, Feminist Studies in Religion Conference at Drew University, Madison, NJ, June 18-21, 2017
“Kohenet’s Spiritual Materials: Altars, Archaeology and ‘Sacred Clutter Busting,’” Upcoming at Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA, December 2016
Discussant, “Orthodoxy and Secularism in Modern America,” Upcoming at Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA, December 2016
“Hadassah and the Making of a Pasteurized and Homogenized Land of Milk and Honey,” American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY, June 2016
“Serving God with My Naked Body,” Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, MA, December 2015
"My Body is a Temple, And a Laboratory: Science and Religion at the Kohenet Priestess Training Institute," American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Religion, Science, and Technology Group; Atlanta, GA, November 2015
"Improvisational Reading: The Silent Dramatics of Kohenet Hebrew Priestesses,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Ritual Studies Group; Atlanta, GA, November 2015
“‘Geography Closest In’ and Transcendent: Israel, God, and the Female Body,” Leffell Seminar: Impact of Israel on American Jewry, West Harrison, NY, August 2015
"Who Shall Be Born? American Protestant Reactions to Reproductive Technologies and Eugenics," American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Bioethics Group; San Francisco, CA, November 2011
“Lived Religion and Technology: American Women’s Narratives on in vitro Fertilization,” Science & Religion in America: The 2011 American Studies Graduate Student Conference at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, September 2011
“Lived Religion and Technology: American Women’s Narratives on In Vitro Fertilization,” American Academy of Religion’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting, New Brunswick, NJ, March 2011
CAMPUS OR DEPARTMENTAL TALKS
“Mirroring and Immersing: The Modern Mikveh Movement,” Religion Unwound, Columbia University Religion Department, New York, NY, April 2016
“Mirroring and Immersing: The Modern Mikveh Movement,” Columbia University Institute for the Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality Graduate Colloquium, New York, NY, April 2016
“Our Bodies, Our Judaism,” Columbia Sociology Graduate Student Conference; New York, NY, April 2016
“Carrying the Weight of Women’s Experience: Reflections on Being Pregnant in the Field,” Religion Unwound, Columbia University Religion Department, New York, NY, April 2015
“Louis Finkelstein’s ‘Jewish Catholic America’: The 1940 Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion at the Jewish Theological Seminary,” Neighbors in Jewish Studies: IIJS Young Scholars Conference, New York, NY, June 2013
“Louis Finkelstein’s ‘Jewish Catholic America’: The 1940 Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion at the Jewish Theological Seminary,” Religion in America University Seminar at Columbia University, New York, NY, May 2013
“Reaching for God and the Next Generation: Texts, Mystics, and Old-World Magic,” Columbia University Religion Department Graduate Student Conference, New York, NY, April 2013
“Religious Experience Reconsidered, Again,” Religion Unwound, Columbia University Religion Department, New York, NY, March 2013
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Gendering Science, Technology and Religion, Cornell University Spring 2018
Controversies in Science, Technology and Medicine, Cornell University Spring 2018
Jewish Women and the Body of Tradition, Cornell University Fall 2017
Atoms and Eve: Science and Religion in America, Columbia University Spring 2016
Atoms and Eve: Science and Religion in America, Columbia University Summer 2014
Teaching Assistant, Columbia University
Freud and Derrida, Teaching Assistant Spring 2015
Religion in America II, Teaching Assistant Spring 2013
Religion in America I, Teaching Assistant Fall 2012
Religion in America II, Teaching Assistant Spring 2012
Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Teaching Assistant Fall 2011
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
Facilitator, Crafting Syllabi and Teaching Assistant Orientation Workshops, Lead Teaching Fellow Workshops, Columbia University, 2015-2016
President, Columbia Religion Graduate Student Association, 2015-2016
Organizer and Facilitator, Gender and Authority in the Classroom Panel, Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, 25 March 2015
Rapporteur, Religions in America University Seminar, Columbia University, 2014-2016
OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Adjunct Fellow, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2016-2017
Co-Facilitator, Science, Technology, and Religion Reading Group, 2015-2016
Oral Historian, David Weiss Halivni and Women’s Ordination, 2014
Consultant, Jewish Museum of Maryland, Beyond Chicken Soup: Jews and Medicine in America, 2013-2016
Research Assistant, Social Science Research Council, New Directions in the Study of Prayer, 2012
Participant at Brocher-Hastings Center Summer Academy, Human Enhancement: Medical, Ethical, and Legal Implications, Geneva, Switzerland, July 2011
Research Assistant and Conference Coordinator, Social Science Research Council, Project on Spirituality, Political Engagement, and Public Life, 2011
Research Assistant, Revd. Dr. Michael Moynagh, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University, 2010
Undergraduate Research, Broach Lab, Princeton University, 2008-2009
Undergraduate Research, Dunham Lab, Princeton University, 2006
Research Internship, Palese Lab, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 2004-2005
RESEARCH LANGUAGES
Hebrew, French, German
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Academy of Religion, Association for Jewish Studies, American Jewish Historical Society, Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry
REFERENCES
Courtney Bender, Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, Columbia University
80 Claremont Avenue, New York, NY 10027
Email: cb337@columbia.edu
Telephone: (212) 851-4134
Gil Anidjar, Professor, Department of Religion, Columbia University
80 Claremont Avenue, New York, NY 10027
Email: ga152@columbia.edu
Telephone: (212) 851-4130
Joshua Dubler, Assistant Professor, Department of Religion and Classics, University of Rochester
249 Edgerton Street, Rochester, NY 14607
Email: Joshua.dubler@rochester.edu
Telephone: (609) 610-5687
Laura Levitt, Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies, and Gender, Temple University
641 Anderson Hall
1114 West Polett Walk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
Email: llevitt@temple.edu
Telephone: (215) 204-4745