Debra Renee Kaufman (born April 2, 1941) is an American sociologist whose work focuses on feminist methodologies in the fields of the sociology of Jewry and Jewish history.[1] Kaufman was the founder and former director of the Women’s Studies (later Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and Jewish Studies programs at Northeastern University.[2]
Born Debra Renee Horowitz, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio in a poor immigrant Jewish community, she married her husband, Michael Kaufman, who would become a professor of English and American Literature. Debra Kaufman studied at the University of Michigan, earning her undergraduate and master's degrees. In 1975, Debra Kaufman received her PhD from Cornell University.[2][3]
Kaufman served as an editor for several journals, including Nashim: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues and Contemporary Jewry.[4]