Kosstrin publishes "Kinesthetic Peoplehood"
Hannah Kosstrin recently published a new book entitled Kinesthetic Peoplehood: Jewish Diasporic Dance Migrations (Oxford University Press 2026), which examines Jewish diasporic dance practices of choreographers who migrated between Israel and the United States between the Cold War and COVID-19.
Kinesthetic Peoplehood explores how people experience diaspora not only through geography or shared histories of exile and displacement, but also through the body itself. Drawing upon extensive archival materials, interviews, and ethnographic research, this book demonstrates how dance embodies the cultural migrations at the heart of Jewish experience. It is the first English-language multiethnic study of Jewish dance, and the first book to focus on Mizrahi choreographers in the United States. Kinesthetic Peoplehood also expands our understanding of diasporic dance practices and brings a fresh perspective to conversations about Israeli theatrical dance by centering Mizrahi, Ethiopian, and queer Jewish dance histories that are often marginalized in historical discourse to pose diaspora as a bodily experience in which people find home.