Andrea Most

Andrea Most is Professor of American Literature and Jewish Studies in the Department of English at the University of Toronto. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of modern American literature and culture, Jewish cultural studies, the environmental humanities, food studies, theatre and performance. Her first book Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical (Harvard UP, 2004) won the 2005 Kurt Weill Prize for distinguished scholarship on music theatre. Her second book, Theatrical Liberalism: Jews and Popular Entertainment in America (NYU Press, 2013) was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Culture. Selected as a Jackman Humanities Institute Faculty Fellow on the special theme of Food for 2012-13, Prof. Most continues to conduct research on the relationship between Jews, Judaism and agriculture in the modern era, with a special focus on the contemporary Jewish food movement.  She works as a co-founder and designer of Bela Farm, a centre for land-based Judaism in Southwestern Ontario and as an activist in the Jewish food movement both locally and internationally. Prof. Most’s current research and teaching focus broadly on the crucial role of the humanities in confronting environmental crisis.  As part of this initiative, this year she will be completing an ecocritical memoir entitled A Pain in the Neck and developing a new experiential pedagogy for teaching in the environmental humanities. Prof. Most is cross-listed with many interdisciplinary programs including the Centre for Jewish Studies, the Department for the Study of Religion, Centre for the Study of the United States, and the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies.