Lori Kenschaft

Biography

Lori’s lifelong interest in how social change happens has both intellectual and practical dimensions.  She has taught American history and gender studies at Boston University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Her first book, “Lydia Maria Child: The Quest for Racial Justice” (Oxford University Press, 2002), explores the life and work of a woman who galvanized the abolitionist movement while struggling with her own poverty and gendered constraints.  Her second book, “The Difficult Art of Comradeship: Love and Work in the Marriage of Alice Freeman Palmer and George Herbert Palmer, 1887-1902” (University of Illinois Press, 2005), is a double biography of one of the first couples to seek a dual-career marriage.

Lori is now a religious and community leader.  She serves as Clerk of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington and coordinator of First Parish’s Mass Incarceration Working Group, which works in coalition with many other organizations to end mass incarceration in Massachusetts.  Lori is also concerned about widespread ignorance of Islam and prejudice against Muslims, and she has taught introductions to Islam and Muslim history at First Parish Arlington and in community education settings.

In her relaxation time Lori tends habitat-friendly gardens not just around her own home, but also in shared public spaces.

Education

B.A. in Biology/Religion/Women's Studies, Swarthmore College
Masters of Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School
Doctorate in American Studies, Boston University

Books