Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies

B.A.(George Washington University 1992)
M.Phil, Ph.D. (City University of New York 2000, 2002)

Visiting Scholar, Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology, Tel Aviv University (2008-2009)
Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (2004)

615-875-3180
s.kelner@vanderbilt.edu
321-H Garland

Shaul Kelner specializes in the sociology of contemporary Jewish experience. His research analyzes how culture and politics intersect to shape Jewish life. He is currently writing a book about mass mobilization tactics in the Cold War-era movement to free Soviet Jews.

His first book, Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage and Israeli Birthright Tourism (NYU Press), won the Association for Jewish Studies’ 2010 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in the category of Social Science, Anthropology and Folklore and was named Honorable Mention for the American Sociological Association Culture Section’s 2011 Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book.

Prof. Kelner received his Ph.D in 2002 from the City University of New York, which he attended as a Wexner Graduate Fellow.

He has been a Fellow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute for Advanced Studies and the University of Michigan’s Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, as well as a visiting scholar in Tel Aviv University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

He lectures widely on the sociology of American Jews, and is a speaker in the Association for Jewish Studies’ Distinguished Lectureship Program.