Biography
Fields-Rayant Chair in Contemporary Jewish Life, Dr. Ilana Horwitz is a sociologist of religion and education who examines how people’s gender, ethnicity, race, social class, and religious upbringing shape their life. Dr. Horwitz is trained in both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Prior to Tulane, Dr. Horwitz was a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Center on Longevity, and she earned her PhD in Sociology of Education & Jewish Studies from Stanford University. She earned her Masters in International Education Development from Columbia University's Teachers College, and a Bachelors in Business Administration from Emory University. She is a former Institute for Education Sciences fellow and Wexner/Davidson fellow, and worked for several years as a management consultant and program evaluator. Dr. Horwitz recently served on the Board of the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE) and is an affiliate of the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University. In her first book, God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion’s Surprising Impact on Academic Success (OUP 2022), Dr. Horwitz examines the surprising ways in which a religious upbringing shapes the academic lives of teens. Dr. Horwitz’s second book, The Entrepreneurial Scholar, is forthcoming with Princeton University Press, and her third book, The Broken Ladder: Why 2/3 of Americans Don’t Complete College - And Why It’s Not Their Fault is under contract with University of California Press.