Alissa Schapiro (She, Her, Hers)

Alissa has combined her passions for art history and Jewish studies to find a focus for her in-progress Ph.D. dissertation, "Busy With Other News: American Art, Visual Culture, and Antisemitism during World War II." Her work focuses on how art from the World War II time period has largely been ignored, which she argues stems from a desire to minimize U.S. culpability.

A dedicated researcher, Alissa gives talks about what she has learned at museums and synagogues, for groups of Holocaust survivors and educators, and events sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Thanks to her educational prowess and kindness, she was recently given the Weinberg College Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award.

She has also held four fellowships and is a member of three local arts associations. Her dedication to Judaism inspires many to follow in her footsteps and join local Jewish organizations.

AGE:
33

PRIMARY GIG:
I’m a Ph.D. Candidate in Art History at Northwestern University, and I currently hold the Crown Graduate Fellowship in Jewish Studies at Northwestern.

ON THE SIDE:
I’ve continued my museum curatorial practice throughout graduate school. Most recently, I served as one of the curators for "Life Magazine and the Power of Photography," an exhibition accompanied by an award-winning book, for the Princeton University Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I’m currently working on a new exhibition with a professor at Loyola University Chicago about artists, writers, and intellectuals who fled Nazi-occupied Paris for the unoccupied port city of Marseille in the early 1940s.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN 10 WORDS OR LESS:
Devoted family member, proud Jew, passionate educator, and sports fanatic.

CELEBRITY DOPPELGANGER:
I would love Beanie Feldstein--a hilarious and insanely talented Jewish woman--to play me in a movie!

A JEW WHO INSPIRES YOU:
Every member of my loud, proud Jewish family inspires me every day, but if I had to pick one person it would be my dad. He has never forgotten that faith comes first, and that success gained without following a moral compass grounded in the tenets of Judaism is not worth having. My dad insists on being vocal about his Judaism, speaking up for Jews and for Israel even when it’s uncomfortable. His ability to bring Judaism into his own academic work gave me the push I needed to diverge from the traditional path of art historical scholarship in order to focus on the Holocaust. As a person and as a Jew, there is no greater role model than my dad.