Aviva Ben-Ur is a historian and Professor in the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with adjunct status in the Department of History and the Programs of Spanish and Portuguese, and Comparative Literature. Her areas of scholarly specialization include Atlantic Jewish History, Sephardi Studies, Slavery Studies, and the modern Ottoman diaspora.

She is the author of Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History (New York University Press, 2009) and, with Rachel Frankel, Remnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries of Suriname: Epitaphs (Hebrew Union College Press, 2009), and Remnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries and Synagogues of Suriname: Essays (Hebrew Union College Press, 2012). Her current book, Jewish Autonomy in a Slave Society: Suriname in the Atlantic World, 1651-1825, is forthcoming in 2020 with The University of Pennsylvania Press.

Professor Ben-Ur teaches "Jewish Food in Historical Perspective" (Judaic 327); "Mediterranean Mosaic: Ancient Civilizations, Then and Now" (Judaic 328); "Sustainability in Comparative Religious Context" (Judaic 326); "Jewish History Through Biography" (Judaic 313); "American Diversity" (Judaic 322); "Jewish Utopia/Dystopia" (Judaic 323);"Slavery in Comparative Religious Perspective" (Judaic 324); "Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Medieval World" (Judaic 325); "Sustainability in Comparative Religious Perspective" (Judaic 326); "American Jewish Diversity" (Judaic 343); "Sephardic Literatures and Cultures of the Spanish Diaspora" (Judaic 353); "Jewish Travelers and Travel Liars: Exploration and Imagination, Medieval to Modern Times" (Judaic 373); "The Jewish Experience in America" (Judaic 375); and "The Jewish People II: Medieval to Modern Times" (Judaic 102), one of the semesterly gateway courses for Judaic Studies majors and minors.