Speaker

Ruth Behar

She/Her
Writer, Scholar

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Dr. Ruth Behar is a highly acclaimed scholar, novelist, and public intellectual. She is the James W. Fernandez Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Born in Havana, Cuba, she has lived in Spain and Mexico and has returned to Cuba to build bridges around culture and art. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a Carnegie Corporation “Great Immigrant,” and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her acclaimed scholarly books include The Presence of the Past in a Spanish Village, Translated Woman, The Vulnerable Observer, An Island Called Home, and Traveling Heavy. Other works include a bilingual book of poems, Everything I Kept/Todo lo que guardé; a documentary, Adio Kerida; and the prize-winning young adult novels, Lucky Broken Girl and Letters from Cuba. Dr. Behar’s latest work is a picture book, Tía Fortuna’s New Home, a Cuban Sephardic story about intergenerational memory.