Sharon Avni

Sharon Avni is Professor of Academic Literacy and Linguistics at the City University of New York (CUNY-BMCC). Trained in linguistic anthropology and education, her scholarship examines how American Jews use, learn, and talk about languages, and the different ways in which these language practices inform American Jewish life and education.

Her books include Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps, Teaching and Learning in Jewish Day Schools, Judaism Mediated: Learning About Judaism Through the Cultural Arts, and Speaking of Hebrew: What Language Does for American Jews.

Her scholarship contributes to conversations in sociolinguistics, Jewish studies, and education, and has been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Advanced Research Collaborative at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award at BMCC (2018–2019), reflecting her commitment to engaged, critical, and student-centered pedagogy. She is a research affiliate at the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University.

Her current project investigates intergenerational dynamics in American Jewish families, with particular attention to how language, values, and identity are negotiated across generational lines.