Dr. Ilana Horwitz

Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology | Fields-Rayant Chair in Contemporary Jewish Life, Tulane University

Dr. Ilana Horwitz is an award-winning author and sociologist who studies contemporary Jewish life and how religion, social class, and gender shape opportunity in America. She is a professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Tulane University, where she holds the Fields-Rayant Chair of Contemporary Jewish Life, and earned her PhD from Stanford. Her current research examines economic vulnerability among American Jews and how Jewish New Orleans survived Hurricane Katrina. Her books include God, Grades, and Graduation (2022), winner of the Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Section; The Entrepreneurial Scholar (2025); and Burnt Out and Left Behind (Forthcoming January 2027). She has received the Emerging Scholar Award from the Association for the Scientific Study of Jewry and Tulane's Rising Star Award. Her work appears in leading academic journals and in The New York Times, The Washington Post, JTA, The Forward, Sources Journal, and Sapir.