Becky S. Friedman received her B.A., summa cum laude, and M.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Her research interests include English Renaissance drama, the history of Jews and Judaism in England, and gender and religion in early modern Europe. Her work reveals how London playhouses embraced Jewishness as a productive means of exploring difference and likeness at a time when economic transformation and globalizing influences were renegotiating the terms of communal belonging.

She is currently writing her first book, The Jewish Body on the Shakespearean Stage.