Kirsten Fermaglich

Kirsten Fermaglich is Professor of History and Jewish Studies at MSU.

Her book on American social scientists and Holocaust metaphors, "American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares: Early Holocaust Consciousness and Liberal America," 1957-1965, appeared in 2006. Her book, "A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Name Changing in America," was published in 2018 and received the Saul Viener Book Prize from the American Jewish Historical Society.

She is also co-editor (with Lisa Fine) of the Norton Critical Edition of Betty Friedan’s "The Feminine Mystique" (2013). She has published in the Journal of American History, the Journal of American Ethnic History, American Jewish History, the Michigan Historical Review, Southern Jewish History, and several edited collections.

Kirsten was a Distinguished Fellow examining systemic racism at the National Archives in 2022-2023. She has also won fellowships and grants from YIVO, the Posen Foundation, and the Association for Jewish Studies. A Legacy Heritage grant supported a year of programming at MSU 2011-2012 on the theme “Telling Family Stories: Jews, Genealogy & History.” Kirsten also co-curated (with Ken Waltzer) a 2002-2003 MSU museum exhibit, “Uneasy Years: Michigan Jewry During Depression and War,” that was recognized by the Michigan Council for the Humanities as among the top 30 projects the Council supported in thirty years. Kristen Fermaglich was co-editor of "American Jewish History" published by Johns Hopkins University Press from 2017-2022.