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Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett


Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (born September 30, 1942 in Toronto, Ontario) is a scholar of Performance and Jewish Studies and a museum professional. She was born in Canada during the Second World War to Jewish immigrants from Poland. Professor of Performance Studies at New York University since 1981 (and distinguished University Professor since 2002), she is best known for her interdisciplinary contributions to Jewish studies and to the theory and history of museums, tourism, and heritage. She is currently Program Director of the Core Exhibition for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett was born in Toronto, Ontario, and raised in Toronto's downtown immigrant neighborhood during the immediate postwar years. Both of her parents were Jewish and were born and raised in Poland. Her mother came to Canada from Brześć Litewski in 1929 and her father from Opatów in 1934. She attended Orde Street Public School and Northview Heights Collegiate, as well as the Farband Shule, Peretz Shule, and D’Arcy Talmud Torah. She lived in Israel during 1961-1962 and studied at an ulpan, worked on Kibbutz Revivim, taught manual training to boys with learning disabilities in Tel Aviv, and conducted research on textiles in Jerusalem. Upon her return to Toronto, she began her university studies and academic career. She married the artist Max Gimblett in 1964. They have lived and worked in the United States since 1965.

An honors English major at the University of Toronto from 1962–1965, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with an A.B. and M.A. in English literature in 1966 and 1967 respectively. She received her PhD in 1972 from Indiana University, Bloomington, where she studied folklore, anthropology, ethnomusicology, sociolinguistics, and material culture under esteemed folklorist Richard Dorson.


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