Professional Affiliation

Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Expert Bio

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. She is University Professor Emerita and Professor Emerita of Performance Studies at New York University. Her books include Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage; Image before My Eyes: A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland, 1864–1939 (with Lucjan Dobroszycki); and They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust (with Mayer Kirshenblatt).

She received honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the University of Haifa and the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She currently serves on Advisory Boards for the Council of American Jewish Museums and Jewish museums in Vienna, Berlin, and Moscow.