Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in America: Entanglements, Boundaries, and the Public University, with Carol Bakhos

The Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life will present “Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in America: Entanglements, Boundaries, and the Public University,” a lecture by Carol Bakhos, on February 25, 2026, at 4:00pm at UCSB’s Henley Hall Lecture Hall (1010). This event is free and open to the public.

This talk will survey the fields of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in America from their origins to the present. It will consider the ways in which they intersect and how they are distinct. How does the relationship between these separate yet related fields play out across higher education, particularly at public universities? Drawing on archival research, surveys, and comparisons with the current state of ethnic and area studies, this talk explores the roles Jewish Studies and Israel Studies have played and continue to play on campus.

Carol Bakhos is Robert E. Archer Professor in the Study of Religion, in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 2012 she has served as Director of the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA, and Chair of the Interdisciplinary Program in the Study of Religion.

This event is presented by the Department of Religious Studies, and co-sponsored by the Walter H. Capps Center.