Samira K. Mehta is an Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections religion, culture, and gender, including the politics of family life and reproduction in the United States. Her first book, Beyond Chrismukkah: The Christian-Jewish Interfaith Family in the United States (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) was a National Jewish book award finalist. Her newly released book of personal essays called The Racism of People Who Love You (Beacon Press, 2023) appeared on Oprah’s “Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2023,” where it was called “the epitome of a book meeting a moment.” Mehta’s current academic book project, God Bless the Pill: Sexuality and Contraception in Tri-Faith America examines the role of Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant voices in competing moral logics of contraception, population control, and eugenics from the mid-twentieth century to the present and is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press. She is also beginning a project for Princeton University Press called A Mixed Multitude: Jews of Color in the United States. Mehta is the primary investigator for a Henry Luce Foundation funded project called Jews of Color: Histories and Futures. She is a member of the board of Feminist Studies in Religion, where she serves as the co-editor of the blog; co-chairs the steering committee of the North American Religions Program Unit at the American Academy of Religion; and is a Creative Editor at the journal American Religion. She holds degrees from Swarthmore College. Harvard University, and Emory University.
keywords
interfaith families, antisemitism, religious discrimination, Jews of color, birth control
JWST 2850 - Sex, Religion, and Politics in US Healthcare
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2025
Examines the roles of religion, gender, and sexuality in the politics of healthcare in the United States. Topics may include sexual health and education; debates over health and sexuality during the HIV/AIDS crisis; the expansion and contraction of access to birth control; public debates over abortion; debates over religion, politics, and healthcare for transgender people; and histories of religion, health, and race. Same as WGST 2850.
JWST 3820 - Topics in Jewish Studies
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2022
Intensive study of a selected area or problem in Jewish Studies. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours as topics change.
JWST 3930 - Internship in Jewish Studies
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2026
Learn beyond the classroom by interning in a local non-profit organization that connects with the Program in Jewish Studies through its mission and/or program. Interns will attend class to learn about work place ethics, professional development and leadership skills through a Jewish Studies lens. Interns will be supervised by the faculty member of record as well as the employer housing the intern. Recommended prerequisites: HEBR 2350 or JWST 2350 or HIST 1818 or JWST 1818 or HIST 1828 or JWST 1828. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours.
JWST 4000 - Capstone in Jewish Studies
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2025
Serves as the final product for students completing the major in Jewish Studies. Students will design a project under the supervision of a mentor that serves as the summation of their past work in Jewish Studies. Capstone projects can take the form of a thesis, film or another media. Instructor consent required for JWST minors.
JWST 4200 - Religion and Reproductive Politics in the United States
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2021 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2025 / Summer 2025 / Spring 2026
Focuses primarily on how Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish conversations about sexuality and reproduction have shaped access and attitudes towards reproductive health in the US over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Same as WGST 4200, WGST 5200 and JWST 5200.
JWST 5200 - Religion and Reproductive Politics in the United States
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Fall 2020
Focuses primarily on how Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish conversations about sexuality and reproduction have shaped access and attitudes towards reproductive health in the US over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Same as WGST 4200, JWST 4200, WGST 5200.
WGST 2050 - Gender, Sexuality, and Popular Culture
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Summer 2022 / Summer 2023
Explores diverse cultural forms such as film, popular fiction and non-fiction, music videos, public art, websites, blogs and zines which are shaped by, and in turn shape, popular understandings of gender at the intersections of race, class, ability, religion, nation and imperialism.
WGST 2850 - Sex, Religion, and Politics in US Healthcare
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2025
Examines the roles of religion, gender, and sexuality in the politics of healthcare in the United States. Topics may include sexual health and education; debates over health and sexuality during the HIV/AIDS crisis; the expansion and contraction of access to birth control; public debates over abortion; debates over religion, politics, and healthcare for transgender people; and histories of religion, health, and race. Same as JWST 2850.
WGST 3701 - Topics in U.S. Gender and Sexuality Studies (AH)
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020 / Fall 2022
Examines selected topics in women, gender and sexuality in the arts and humanities, from a U.S. perspective.May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours for different topics. Recommended prerequisite: WGST 2000 or WGST 2600.
WGST 3702 - Topics in U.S. Gender and Sexuality Studies (SS)
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Examines selected topics in women, gender and sexuality in the social sciences, from a U.S. perspective. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours for different topics. Recommended prerequisite: WGST 2000 or WGST 2600.
WGST 3930 - Women and Gender Studies Internship
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022
Provides field experience in local and national government and non-governmental agencies focusing on women and gender-related issues. Supervision by approved field instructors. Students must relate their academic experience to their field work experience though a portfolio and a final paper. Department enforced prerequisite: 6 hours of course work in Women and Gender Studies and 30 cumulative credit hours.
WGST 4200 - Religion and Reproductive Politics in the United States
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2021 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2025 / Summer 2025 / Spring 2026
Focuses primarily on how Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish conversations about sexuality and reproduction have shaped access and attitudes towards reproductive health in the US over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Same as JWST 4200, WGST 5200 and JWST 5200.
WGST 5200 - Religion and Reproductive Politics in the United States
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Fall 2020
Focuses primarily on how Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish conversations about sexuality and reproduction have shaped access and attitudes towards reproductive health in the US over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Same as WGST 4200, JWST 4200, JWST 5200.
WGST 6290 - Special Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2021
Offers interdisciplinary feminist perspectives on different special topics such as gender and war, gender and globalization, women's social movements, gender and citizenship, gender and collective memory, and cultural representations of gender and sexuality. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Meets the requirements for the WGST certificate.
