Dr. Ilana M. Horwitz is an assistant professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology and holds the Fields-Rayant Chair of Contemporary Jewish Life at Tulane University. As a sociologist of religion and education, she explores how factors such as gender, ethnicity, race, social class, and religious upbringing shape people’s life trajectories. She earned her PhD in sociology of education and Jewish studies from Stanford University, her master’s degree in international education development from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Emory University.
For several years, Dr. Horwitz worked as a management consultant and program evaluator. She also served on the board of the Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education. She is a former Institute for Education Sciences fellow and Wexner Davidson fellow and is the program director for the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University.
An accomplished writer and scholar, Dr. Horwitz examines the intersection of religion, education, and social inequality in her many works. Her book God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion’s Surprising Impact on Academic Success received a Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association’s religion section. She explores those topics further with her forthcoming works, The Entrepreneurial Scholar: A New Mindset for Success in Academia and Beyond and The Broken Ladder: Why 2/3 of Americans Don’t Complete College—And Why It’s Not Their Fault. Her scholarship has been featured in leading academic journals such as American Sociological Review and Social Science Research, and her public opinion pieces have appeared in outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.
