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ack n owled gM ents I am indebted to many people for their support over my many years of anthropological education, field research, and the writing of this book. first, my teachers and mentors: Jon Andelson at grinnell College in Iowa inspired me to become an anthropologist with his enthusiasm, kindness, and nurturing instruction in the joys of theoretical thinking. His own teacher (and later mine) at the University of Michigan, the late Skip Rappaport, remains another role model for anthropology as a humane and humanistic discipline; he suggested to me the provocative if unpopular idea that if one ethnic group imagines itself to have cohabitated amicably with another in the past, perhaps they will be better equipped to do so in the future. Also at Michigan, Crisca Bierwert, Tom fricke, Conrad kottak, Bruce Mannheim, and Jennifer Robertson each opened my eyes to new ways of thinking about culture. Janet Hart responded to my fraught e-mails from the field with equal parts reassurance that my feelings of chaos and confusion meant that I was a “real anthropologist” doing exactly as I should, and admonition (after graciously reading some of my field notes) to please not get into cars with any more crazy drivers. during the writing process, Andrew Shryock was a wry, sage, and welcoming voice, with an unusually open office door and a refreshing honesty about academia. His ability to do both fieldwork and public cultural work, and write brilliantly about both, remains an inspiration. don Seeman, friend, mentor, and colleague, is a rare model of expertise in two different analytical worlds—anthropology and Judaism—and he infuses each with the other in rich and courageous ways. He looked on my project with particular engagement, stressing the importance of being true to one’s vision and reminding me that he would be applying his own to mine when he would review this book. Barbara kirshenblatt-gimblett, whose work I had long admired, graciously agreed to serve as an external committee member. She is a force of nature, a one-woman institution, a connecter of people, and a generous mentor as I continue to follow paths of cultural inquiry and prac- xii acknowledgMents tice she has blazed. Ruth Behar, my main graduate advisor, gave me—and a cohort of other aspiring ethnographers—permission to examine the vast, generally unspoken sea of emotions that much ethnography traverses in its creation. She provided an example of professional possibility, blurring boundaries , exploring creative collaborations, and writing beautifully. If not for her, I never could have imagined the career I now have. The University of Michigan, I realize more than ever in hindsight, was an incredible place to become an anthropologist. I was challenged in profound ways, vastly enriched by the intellectual offerings, and learned perhaps most of all from my amazingly dedicated, interesting, and energetic fellow students. My fellow travelers in the “Live Anthropologists’ Society,” Luke Bergman, Summerson Carr, Severin fowles, and karl Steyaert, were my first mentors in the art of possibility. The writing group “The Termites,” including Meghan Callaghan, doug Rogers, and genese Sodikoff, offset anxiety with good food and cheer and was essential for getting the dissertation done. Ray Silverman welcomed me to the Museum Studies Program, offering a new context for thinking about public heritage, and Julie Ellison, kristen Hass, and david Scobey provided models of publicly engaged scholarship; Julie continues to inspire me with her championing of hope as a political sentiment. At Michigan I also benefitted immensely from the vast array of resources the university provided for creative and professional development. These included a luxurious year as a graduate fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities in 2001–02, and one more at the gayle Morris Sweetland Writing Center in 2003–04. Stefan Senders at Sweetland was a true gem, smart in just the ways I needed. My graduate training and research were also supported by a USIA fulbright dissertation Research Scholarship, an IREx Individual Advanced Research grant, a kosciuszko foundation Tuition Scholarship, an American Council of Learned Societies Summer Language Study grant, an American Academy for Jewish Research graduate Seminar, and a Junior Scholars ’ Training Seminar in East European Studies sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the American Council of Learned Societies. generous postdoctoral fellowships in 2005–06 at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and in 2006–07 when I was the Hazel d. Cole fellow at...

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