Joy Ladin

Joy Ladin is the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution. She holds the David and Ruth Guttesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University. A trans woman, she has two daughters and a son.

Ladin received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2000, her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995 and her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York in 1982.

Ladin was assigned male at birth. After receiving tenure in 2006, she opted for gender reassignment because she knew her job was secure with the tenure. In 2007, Ladin transitioned, changed her first name from Jay to Joy and divorced the mother of her children, Christine Benvenuto, whom she had been with for more than twenty years. When she came out, Yeshiva University put her on leave. While on leave, she taught poetry at her alma mater Sarah Lawrence College. Today, she not only teaches at Yeshiva University, but is the head of the Writing Center

In 2009, Ladin published the poetry collection Transmigration, her first poetry collection published under the name Joy.

In April 2011, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America held a Yom Iyyun, or day of learning, about LGBTQ issues and their intersection with Judaism. Among other things, Ladin gave a talk about her life there.

In 2012, she published the memoir Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders.

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