Britt-Tevis

Britt Tevis

(Pronouns: She, Her)

Contact Information:

bptevis@syr.edu

119 Eggers Hall

Personal Website

Britt Tevis

Assistant Professor, History Department

Phyllis Backer Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Arts and Sciences

Courses

  • 2024 Fall
    • HST/JSP 300 Selected Topics - AmJewishHS
    • HST 600 Selected Topics - HstUSAntis

Highest degree earned

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016

Bio

Britt P. Tevis (she/her/hers) joins the Department of History in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in Fall 2024 as a tenure-track assistant professor. She will teach classes in modern U.S. history and modern U.S. Jewish history.

Prior to joining Syracuse University, Tevis was the Plessner Postdoctoral Fellow in Holocaust and Antisemitism Studies at Columbia University (2023-2024), where she taught Antisemitism in U.S. History and U.S. Civil and Human Rights Lawyers. Prior to her fellowship at Columbia University, she served as a public history postdoctoral associate in antisemitism studies at the National Archives, Boston University from 2022 to 2023.

Tevis’s research focuses on modern Jewish history. She is currently finishing her book manuscript, titled “May It Displease the Court: Jewish Lawyers and the Democratization of American Law.” Her article, “‘Jews Not Admitted’: Anti-Semitism, Civil Rights, and Public Accommodation Law,” appeared in the Journal of American History in March 2021. She recently completed an anthology, titled “Sanctioned Bigotry: A Documentary History of Antisemitism in the United States” (under contract at Yale University Press).

Her research has been supported by the Jody Ellant and Howard Reiter Family Fellowship, the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania from 2020 to 2021, and the Julie and Peter Weil Distinguished Graduate Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tevis twice received the Wasserman Essay Prize for the best article in Jewish history from the American Jewish Historical Society: in 2022 for “Trends in the Study of Antisemitism in United States History,” American Jewish History 105, no. 1/2 (2021), and in 2016 for “‘The Hebrews Are Appearing in Court in Great Numbers’: Toward a Reassessment of Early Twentieth-Century American Jewish Immigration History,” American Jewish History 100, no. 3 (2016).

Tevis earned a Ph.D. in history in 2016, a J.D. in 2012 and an M.A. in history in 2010, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and a B.A. in Jewish studies and political science from the University of Florida in 2007. 

Selected Publications

Presentations and Events

Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, "Listening for Silence in the National Archives: Researching Antisemitism" (December 17, 2023 - December 19, 2023)

Roger Lehecka Double Discovery Center, Columbia University, "Antisemitism in U.S. History" (November 15, 2023)

Columbia University Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and the American University Jewish Studies Program, "Unpacking Antisemitism on Campus" (October 22, 2023)

DOROT, "Antisemitism in U.S. History" (August 31, 2023)

Jewish Law and the Constitution Series, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, "Disproportional Representation and the Myth of the Jewish Shyster" (February 7, 2023)

Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, "'Russian Jews of the Lower Class': Jewish Neighborhoods in the Federal Housing Authority Maps" (December 20, 2022)

Anti-Defamation League “Never Is Now” Conference, "A Historical View of Jews and Public Accommodations in the United States" (November 10, 2022)

Biennial Scholars’ Conference in American Jewish History, "Igniting Antisemitism: Late Nineteenth-Century Fire Marshals and Anti-Jewish Discrimination" (May 15, 2022 - May 18, 2022)

Law v. Antisemitism Conference, IU McKinney School of Law, "Reincorporating American Jews into Public Accommodations Scholarship" (March 13, 2022 - March 14, 2022)

Law v. Antisemitism Conference, IU McKinney School of Law, "The Ubiquitous Jewish Shyster and the Myth of Disproportionality" (March 13, 2022 - March 14, 2022)

Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, University of London, "Antisemitism in American History: Reflections and Ways Forward" (December 1, 2021)

Faculty-Grad Student Workshop, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University-Bloomington, "Real and Imagined Jewish Lawyers in the United States, 1654-1900" (September 17, 2021)

Greenfield Summer Institute, Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, "Jewish Lawyers and Judicial Politics" (July 21, 2021)

Center for Jewish Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, "Antisemitism and American Law: A New Perspective on a Misunderstood History" (June 9, 2021)

California State University-Fresno Jewish Studies Program, "'Jews Not Admitted': Anti-Semitism, Civil Rights, and Public Accommodation Laws" (April 22, 2021)

Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, "Teaching Antisemitism" (December 13, 2020 - December 17, 2020)

Ruth Meltzer Seminar, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, "Incendiary Allegations: The Construction of Arson as a Jewish Crime in the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century United States" (December 2, 2020)

Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, "American Anti-Semitism: New Approaches and Frameworks" (April 2, 2020 - April 5, 2020)

Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, "We Didn’t Start the Fires: The Construction of Arson as a Jewish Crime in Late 19th and Early 20th Century America" (December 15, 2019)

Working Group on Antisemitism in American Jewish History, Center for Jewish History, "'Jews Not Admitted': Antisemitism, Civil Rights, and Public Accommodation Laws" (December 6, 2019)

Jewish Law Students Association, Yale Law School, "Jewish Lawyers and the American Legal Profession: A Paradoxical History" (October 24, 2019)

Bacchus Marsh Grammar Workshop, Deakin Law School, "Snapshot of Law in American History: 'The People's Judge,' Jacob Panken" (March 29, 2019)

Honors and Accolades

Wasserman Essay Prize, American Jewish Historical Society (2022)

Jody Ellant and Howard Reiter Family Fellowship, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania (2020 - 2021)

Wasserman Essay Prize, American Jewish Historical Society (2016)

George L. Mosse Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2015 - 2016)

Lowenstein-Wiener Fellowship, Jacob Rader Marcus Center, American Jewish Archives (2014 - 2015)