Melissa Klapper

Melissa Rose Klapper is an American historian and storyteller. She is a professor of American and women's history at Rowan University. Klapper has authored books on American Jewish women's history and the history of children and youth in the United States.

Life

Klapper completed a B.A. at Goucher College in 1995. Peter Bardaglio, Julie Roy Jeffrey, and Laurie Kaplan served as undergraduate mentors of Klapper. She earned a Ph.D. in history from Rutgers University–New Brunswick. Her 2001 dissertation was titled "A Fair Portion of the World's Knowledge": Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920. Alice Kessler-Harris was Klapper's doctoral advisor.

Since 2001 Klapper has been a professor of American and women's history at Rowan University, where she is also director of the Women's & Gender Studies Program. Klapper specializes in the late 19th and early 20th century. Klapper served as co-chair of the Modern Jewish History, The Americas division of the Association for Jewish Studies. Her 2013 book, Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women's Activism, 1890-1940, won a National Jewish Book Award in women's studies. In March 2023, she became a three-day champion on Jeopardy!, winning a total of $60,100.

Selected works

• Klapper, Melissa R. (2005). Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-4780-3.
• Klapper, Melissa R. (2007). Small Strangers: The Experiences of Immigrant Children in America, 1880-1925. Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 978-1-56663-733-6.
• Klapper, Melissa R. (2013). Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women's Activism, 1890-1940. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-4894-7.
• Klapper, Melissa R. (2020). Ballet Class: An American History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-090868-3.