Marla Brettschneider
As a political philosopher, Marla Brettschneider examines issues of feminist, queer, class-based, and Jewish political theory and activism. In the 1980s, Brettschneider coordinated a student activist group, the Progressive Zionist Caucus, and later served as executive director for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Her experience as a lesbian, a Jew, and the adoptive mother of an interracial family informed her writing in books such as The Narrow Bridge: Jewish Views on Multiculturalism (1996), Democratic Theorizing From the Margins (2002), The Family Flamboyant: Race Politics, Queer Families, Jewish Lives (2006), and Jewish Feminism and Intersectionality (2016). She also wrote several books detailing African Jewish experiences: The Jewish Phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa (2016), The Hidden Jews of Ethiopia (2022), and Jewish Africans Describe Their Lives (2023). Brettschneider’s book, Jewcy: Jewish Queer Lesbian Feminisms for the Twenty-First Century, is planned for release in February 2024. She is a professor at the University of New Hampshire, holding joint appointments with the departments of political studies, queer studies, and women’s studies, and coordinates both the queer studies and women’s studies programs.