Naomi Yavneh Klos, Ph.D. holds the Reverend Emmett M. Bienvenu, SJ, Distinguished Chair in Humanities and is Professor of Languages and Cultures at Loyola University New Orleans. From 2011 to 2018, she directed Loyola’s University Honors Program, where she developed a curriculum focused on social justice and diversity. A prominent leader in honors education nationally and internationally, Dr. Yavneh Klos served as the chair of the AJCU Honors Consortium and the President of the National Collegiate Honors Council, centering initiatives on access, equity, and inclusive excellence in higher education. Her leadership in experiential learning and research opportunities led her to a Fulbright Fellowship in the Netherlands, where she taught at Windesheim Honours College and collaborated with the Anne Frank House.
Dr. Yavneh Klos earned her A.B. from Princeton University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in Comparative Literature. She has published extensively on gender and spirituality in Renaissance Italy and is co-editor of three award-winning essay collections on early modern gender studies. A former president and board member of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, Naomi is completing a book, Anne Frank Anew, which considers how examining the complexities of Anne’s seemingly familiar story can help students not only understand the Holocaust, but contemporary antisemitism.
Dr. Yavneh Klos, the founding director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and former Associate Dean of the Honors College at the University of South Florida, also served as the founding chair of the Council of Undergraduate Research’s Arts and Humanities Division. Renowned for her commitment to high-impact practices that enhance student retention, graduation, and community engagement, Dr. Yavneh Klos is an innovator in interdisciplinary and community-focused research and is passionate about the pedagogy of justice.
Currently, in partnership with the Anne Frank House and the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina, she leads the Loyola Anne Frank Project. Through her honors seminar, “Lessons from Anne Frank’s Diary,” Dr. Yavneh Klos guides Loyola students as they help train New Orleans middle school students to serve as docents for the traveling exhibit, “Anne Frank: A History for Today.” These young docents use Anne’s story to foster meaningful conversations about prejudice, intolerance, and hate among their peers.
Beyond her work with the Anne Frank Project, Dr. Yavneh Klos has collaborated with notable institutions including Yad Vashem, the World War II Museum, the Louisiana Philharmonic, and the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience. Exhibits developed in collaboration with her students have appeared at the Louisiana State Capitol (for the state bicentennial), the New Orleans Jazz Museum (marking the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination), and the 2016 Democratic National Convention (featuring “US Hospitality and the American First Lady”).
Her latest project, “Yarns of Resilience: Knitting Women’s Narratives in the Holocaust,” delves into the stories behind handknit items from the Holocaust, shedding light on women’s unique experiences and resilience during this period.
