aykelman (at) UC Davis (dot) edu
I am an Associate Professor of American Studies at UC Davis. I also serve as the director of the Graduate Group in the Study of Religion, and I am a member of the Jewish Studies Program Committee and I sit on the executive committee of the Cultural Studies Program.
My interests focus primarily on aural cultures, with particular interest on the sonic dimensions of American religious communities. I am also a scholar of contemporary Jewish culture, in its many manifestations.
I’m the author of Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio, the editor of Is Diss a System: a Milt Gross Comic Reader and Sacred Strategies. I also publish in a variety of academic and popular publications.
Natalie Yahr’s American Studies Senior Thesis (2010), a radio documentary about the current economic crisis at the University of California, is a great example of the kinds of work our students do. If you missed it’s initial broadcast, you can still hear it here.
Note: There is another Professor Ari Kelman at UC Davis in the history department.
American Studies 59: Final Projects