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By Dory Fox. Last summer, I was debating whether or not I should unpack my library. I had defended my dissertation, thus marking the end of the line for me in academia. Accordingly, I vowed that it would be a summer free of interpretation, free of intellectual inquiry, free of the books I had once […]
By Sam Shuman. In the summer of 2009, Julia Haart was in a decidedly different social milieu than the one in which we find her in 2021 in the Netflix reality TV show, My Unorthodox Life. Before she lived in a 10,000 square foot penthouse apartment in TriBeCa and served as the CEO for Elite […]
By Shira Schwartz. A central theme of My Unorthodox Life, the latest release in the genre of Unorthodox Media, is the presumption, acquisition and staging of “choice,” often paired with its close cousins, “freedom” and “self.” The liberal language of choice is a critical feature not only of OTD media, but of OTD life. (See […]
By Shira Schwartz. This collection includes a number of responses by Jewish studies scholars to Netflix’s reality show My Unorthodox Life, released in June 2021. When I first conceived of this collection, I wanted to highlight the significance of this latest release in ex/post Orthodox Jewish media, which, as a hyperbolic reality television series, may […]
By Tamisha A. Tyler. At the beginning of 2020 I wrote a tweet that stated, “The Parable Series by Octavia Butler is your required reading for 2020. You think Handmaids Tale got close, you ain’t read nothing yet.” I did not anticipate how well that tweet would age. If the last two years have taught […]
By Nereyda Yong and Aizaiah G. Yong. Two of the most prominent revelations that have come from the COVID-19 pandemic are the widespread inequities that continue to plague marginalized communities as well as the devastating effects due to multiple centuries of systemic racism. What has also been made visible, however, are the precarious circumstances in […]
By Judith Plaskow. I learned an important lesson this past summer about the ways in which institutional structures perpetuate a profound power imbalance between sexual harassers and those who are sexually harassed. In August, I received a letter from the AAR Executive Director saying that the board had voted to offer me the Ray L. […]
By Emma Cieslik. “We veil the tabernacle, to the life-givenness of Jesus in the Eucharist. We veil the chalice, again the Precious Blood, the altar … because that’s where the sacrifice of Jesus’s Body and Blood comes forth and brings life to us, and then the woman.” This striking sentiment about the sacredness of women […]
By Miriam Moster. Watching My Unorthodox Life on Netflix, a reality tv series that showcases Julia Haart’s successful fashion career as she and her family grapple with leaving the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, there were many things I could relate to, raised as I was in a similar community to the one Haart left behind. The […]
By Yohana Agra Junker and RJ Lucchesi. As we enter the third academic year disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, I come to the realization that nothing about this experience has been predictable or steady. The spread of the Delta variant has forced our institutions to evaluate, yet again, how classes should or not meet this […]