Distinguished Lecture Series: Dr. Joy Ladin

Dr. Joy Ladin is the Gottesman Chair in English at Yeshiva University and the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution. Her memoir, “Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders,” was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award, and she was named to the 2012 Forward 50 list of influential or courageous American Jews.

She is the author of seven books of poetry. Her work has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts writing fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship and an American Council of Learned Societies research fellowship.

She will explain how her childhood experience of hiding both her transgender identity and her relationship with God has led her to see transgender experience as enriching rather than challenging, opposing or “queering” religious tradition.

All lectures are free and open to the public and begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Charles Johnson Theater at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building.