Lynn Davidman received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University. She is an associate professor of Judaic studies and Sociology at Brown University. Davidman won a National Book Award for Tradition in a Rootless World. She has published two other books, Feminist Perspectives on Jewish Studies, coedited with Shelly Tenenbaum, and Feminist Method in Social Research, cowritten with Shulamit Reinharz. Davidman is on the advisory committee of the Center for the Study of American Religion at Princeton University. She is currently working on Motherless Daughters and Sons and is coediting the book series Explorations in Religion.