Leslie Altnow (PhD., Sociocultural) comes with a bachelor degree in Anthropology and Art History from the University of Oregon.  She completed a MA in Humanities and Social Thought (with a concentration with Museum and Jewish Studies) from NYU in 2004.  Having completed a master’s thesis titled, “Absence, Memory and Cultural Engagement with the Past: The Jewish Museum of Berlin and Vienna”, Leslie has started her first year pursuing a PhD in Cultural Anthropology.  Before moving from NYC to Southern Illinois Leslie worked this last year at the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation as well as the Association for Jewish Studies in New York City. 

As a PhD student in Anthropology, Leslie wants to combine her interests in the anthropology of Europe, and Jewish Studies, by someday conducting field work in the Mediterranean, particularly Greece.  She plans to focus on the Jewish community in Thessaloniki, keeping in mind the crucial interconnection between museums, memory and identity construction.