Laura Yares

Laura Yares’ research explores the different ways that people learn about religion, and the different ways that ideas about religion are circulated in the context of education and learning. She has particular expertise in the history of Judaism in North America, and in nineteenth century American religious history.

Her first book Jewish Sunday Schools: Teaching Religion in Nineteenth Century America (NYU Press, 2023) was a finalist for a 2023 National Jewish Book Award. It argues that education was a central means through which nineteenth century American Jews sought to reimagine Judaism in the modern, Protestant inflected terms of religion. Jewish Sunday Schools focuses closely on issues of women and gender, and on the role of women’s volunteerism in sustaining religious life during the nineteenth century. It also plays close attention to material culture, and to the ways that consumer markets shaped the development of Jewish education.

Her second book engages these interests in popular and consumer culture through a different methodological lens. Artful Education: Learning about Judaism in Leisure Time (co-authored with Sharon Avni, CUNY) is under contract with NYU Press. It utilizes contemporary ethnographic methods to document the different ways that Jews and non-Jews learn about Judaism and Jewishness in the context of leisure time engagements with cultural arts. 

She regularly teaches courses on the history of Judaism, and on Judaism in North America. Other courses include graduate level offerings for the Religious Studies department’s Religion and Non-Profits Masters and Certificate programs. She has offered independent studies and special topics courses for students in religion, history, and education. She enjoys working with students who are interested in researching religion in North America, Jewish history, nineteenth-century American history, and topics related to religion and education.  With Mary Juzwik (College of Education), she leads a year-long professional development program for Michigan 8-10th grade teachers who teach courses and texts related to the Holocaust and other genocides.

Laura Yares can usually be found on the 7th floor of Wells Hall in the department of Religious Studies. She is also a core faculty member in the Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Judaism and Modern Israel. However, she very much enjoys coming over to Old Horticulture for events, to talk shop with other historians, and to meet with the nineteenth-century history research group.

She is a proud first generation college student, and is always happy to meet other first gen college students at Michigan State.