Ari Forsyth (they/them)

I research Jewish migration, racialization, gender normativity, and disability in US imperial regimes in the modern era. I am especially interested in relationships between Jewish American identity, social science, whiteness, liberal citizenship, and systems of welfare in American cities in the Progressive Era (1890-1920).  

Jewish women's motives and methods are critical yet overlooked aspects of how Jewish groups of diverse origins, languages, and heritages were consolidated into a single, imagined racial-ethnic group of “Jewish-Americans,” eligible for whiteness, at the turn of the twentieth century. In my work, I explore how Jewish women produced and policed Jewish claims to American liberal citizenship, whiteness, property, and propriety through social work. As social workers, Jewish women claimed power as white women and modern professionals, struggling for control of urban space against Jewish women whose practices of labor and sexuality they deemed deviant.

I believe history is a powerful tool for connecting me to the needs of my community, understanding relationships to power, and denaturalizing present hierarchies and seemingly self-apparent systems of knowledge. I serve UW students and community members and welcome requests for insight, support, or advocacy.