Dr. des. Sarah Ross has recently finished her PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Theatre Rostock, Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Ellen Koskoff (Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester) and Prof. Hartmut Möller (University of Music and Theatre Rostock). Her dissertation is entitled "Performing the Political in American Jewish Feminist Music" and is based on a three year research among liberal Jewish communities in the United States. Her thesis provides a case study of the Jewish-American community as it grew and became politicized since the 1960s/1970s and onwards into the 21st century.

During that time, the growth of interest in non-western and American folk musics, of feminism, and of Jewish-American identity intersected to create a powerful nexus of social and artistic forces. The dissertation documents this moment and the moments that followed, as Jewish women began to take their religious, social and musical place beside their male counterparts. Within this context, the project was led by the overall research question of what the core values and concepts of contemporary Jewish feminism, so-called New Jewish Feminism (since 1990s) are, and how those are performed through music. The aim of the project was to collect and analyze Jewish-feminist music, which has not been studied in detail before. By discussing Jewish-feminist music along the lines of the Jewish-feminist theological concepts of Torah, Israel and God, the project reveals how Jewish feminist music both initiated and helped to maintain a balance between Jewish traditional practices and new feminist innovation. Sarah is now working as the assistent of Prof. Britta Sweers (Cultural Anthropology of Music) at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Many congratulations!