Fairfield University’s Bennett Center for Judaic Studies will host scholar Ashley Walters, Ph.D., on Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Kelley Center Presentation Room for a public lecture examining Jewish literature, gender and political culture.

The event is part of the Diane Feigenson Lectureship on Jewish Literature, which brings leading scholars to campus to explore Jewish literary and cultural history through public dialogue.

Walters, an assistant professor of Jewish Studies and director of the Pearlstein/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston, will present a lecture titled “Intimate Radicals: Gender, Jewishness, and Revolution in the American Popular Imaginary.”

Her talk will explore unconventional romantic relationships that emerged within the American radical left in the early 20th century, particularly in progressive settlement houses, socialist circles and literary communities where Eastern European Jewish women and white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men interacted. Walters examines how these spaces fostered new intimate relationships and cultural exchange, influencing broader conversations about gender, religion and political radicalism.

Her research draws from correspondence, newspapers, literature and early film to connect personal narratives with larger cultural and political shifts during the Progressive Era.

Walters is co-editor of “Matrilineal Dissent: Women’s Writing and Jewish American Literary History” (2024), a finalist for the 2025 National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies. She is currently researching Jewish chain migration from Kałuszyn, Poland, to Charleston, South Carolina.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested at Fairfield.edu/bennett.