Cara Rock-Singer
323B Morrill Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850
Email: cdr92@cornell.edu
Telephone: (914) 714-3551
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
University of Wisconsin, Madison 2019-presenT
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 2018-2020
Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Jewish Studies
Jewish Studies Program and Science and Technology Studies Department
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 2017-2018
Visiting Lecturer
Jewish Studies Program and Science and Technology Studies Department
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Columbia University, New York, NY February 2018
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 Summer 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.” Forthcoming, Religion and American Culture 29(2), May 2019
Amy A. Caudy, Yuanfang Guan…Cara Singer…Maitreya J. Dunham. (2013) “A New System for Comparative Functional Genomics of Saccharomyces Yeast.” Genetics, 195(1): 275-287
Denis Tolkunov, Karl A. Zawadzki, Cara Singer…James R. Broach. (2011) “Chromatin remodelers clear nucleosomes from intrinsically unfavorable sites to establish nucleosome-depleted regions at promoters.” Molecular Biology of the Cell, 22(12): 2106-2118
Book Chapters
“On the Altar of Shekhina: The Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute and the Revival of the Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership.” Submitted to Jewish Revival(s) Inside Out: Remaking Jewishness in a Post-Secular Age. Rachel Werczberger and Daniel Monterescu, ed.
“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: Jewish Radical Feminism: Voices from the Women’s Liberation Movement by Joyce Antler.” Forthcoming, AJS Review
“Review: Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism by Sarah Imhoff.” In Preparation, Religious Studies Review
“Review: The Territories of Science and Religion by Peter Harrison.” The Revealer: A Review of Religion and Media, New York University, 19 February 2016
Articles in Preparation
“An Education in Religious and Racial Difference: Mid-Twentieth Century Lessons for the American Protestant-Secular.” In Preparation with Leslie Ribovich
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, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University, 2016
The Center for Science and Society Seed Grant, Columbia University, 2015-2016
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
“Stretch Marks: Reproducing the Women’s Health Movement in Jerusalem,” Na’amat USA in Chicago, July 2, 2018
“God’s Immodest Witnesses and Ritual Technologies for Creating Jewish Life,” Science and Technology Studies Colloquium, Cornell University, February 26, 2018
“Life of the Jewish Mind-Body-Spirit,” Leadership and Multifaith Program (LAMP), Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and Georgia Institute of Technology, February 17, 2018
“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, November 6, 2016
“The Mikveh: Piety, Purity, and Political Activism,” University of Pennsylvania, Women and Religion Course, Professor Megan Robb, November 1, 2016
“Ethnographic Fieldwork: Using Film to Bring the Field into the Classroom,” Innovative Teaching Summer Institute, Columbia University, July 14, 2016
CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP ACTIVITY
Workshop Organizer (with Jonathan Boyarin) and Participant, “Gendering and Embodying the Jew: Judaism, Secularism, and the Politics of Difference,” Cornell University, March 17, 2019
“Shifting Positions: The Power of the Self in Jewish Memory, Ritual, and Law,” Roundtable Participant, upcoming at The Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, MA, December 2018
“Reproducing the Social: Magic, Power, and Sexual Taboos,” Panelist, upcoming at The Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, MA, December 2018
“Expansively Jewish: Religion and American Jewish Cultures at the Seams of Knowledge and Performance,” Organizer and Panelist, The 2018 Biennial Scholars’ Conference on American Jewish History, Philadelphia, PA, June 2018
“Jewish Women’s Healing and Medicine: Ancient to Contemporary Traditions” Organizer and Seminar Participant, Association for Jewish Studies, Washington, DC, December 2017
“Relational Technologies: Queer Bodies Performing Ritual Art,” Organizer and Panelist, 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 Organizer and Participant, 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,’” Panelist, Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA, December 2016
“Orthodoxy and Secularism in Modern America,” Seminar Participant, Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA, December 2016
“Hadassah and the Making of a Pasteurized and Homogenized Land of Milk and Honey,” Organizer and Panelist, American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY, June 2016
“Serving God with My Naked Body,” Panelist, 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," Organizer and Panelist, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Religion, Science, and Technology Group; Atlanta, GA, November 2015
"Improvisational Reading: The Silent Dramatics of Kohenet Hebrew Priestesses,” Panelist, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Ritual Studies Group; Atlanta, GA, November 2015
“‘Geography Closest In’ and Transcendent: Israel, God, and the Female Body,” Participant, 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," Panelist, 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,” Panelist, 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,” Panelist, American Academy of Religion’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting, New Brunswick, NJ, March 2011
CAMPUS OR DEPARTMENTAL TALKS (Selected)
“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
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Courses
The Jewish Life of DNA (Cornell University, Spring 2019)
Scientific Controversies (Cornell University, Spring 2018)
Gendering Science, Technology, and Religion in America (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 and Summer 2014)
Courses Assisted at Columbia University
Freud and Derrida (Spring 2015, Prof. Gil Anidjar)
Religion in America II (Spring 2013, Prof. Gale Kenny)
Religion in America I (Fall 2012, Prof. Gale Kenny)
Religion in America II (Spring 2012, Prof. Randall Balmer)
Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Fall 2011, Prof. Jenny Labendz)
Teaching Development and Service
Faculty Seminar in Writing Instruction, John S. Knight Institute (Cornell University, 2018)
Lead Teaching Fellow (Columbia University , 2015-2016)
Facilitator, “Crafting Syllabi” and “Teaching Assistant Orientation” Workshops
Organizer and Facilitator, Gender and Authority in the Classroom Panel, Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, 25 March 2015
Academic Year Teaching Scholar (Columbia University, 2015-2016)
Teagle Teaching Fellow (Columbia University, 2014-2015)
Summer Teaching Scholar (Columbia University, 2014)
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
Association for Jewish Studies Women’s Caucus Board Member, 2017-Present
President, Columbia Religion Graduate Student Association, 2015-2016
Rapporteur, Religions in America University Seminar, Columbia University, 2014-2016
PEER REVIEW
Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies
OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Social Science Postdoctoral Working Group, Cornell University, 2018-2019
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, Princeton University, Dunham Lab (2006) and Broach Lab (2008-2009)
Research Internship, Palese Lab, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 2004-2005
Semifinalist—2005 Intel Science Talent Search
RESEARCH LANGUAGES
English: Native
Hebrew: Proficient in reading, conversational in speaking
French: Proficient in reading and speaking
German: Proficient in reading
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, Department of Religion, Columbia University
80 Claremont Avenue, New York, NY 10027
Email: cb337@columbia.edu; Telephone: (212) 851-4134
Gil Anidjar, Professor and Chair, 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
Jonathan A. Boyarin, Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Cornell University
McGraw Hall, Room 224, Ithaca, NY 14850
Email: jboyarin@cornell.edu