Hella Winston
Sociologist

UNCHOSEN:
The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels
Beacon Press, 2005

Hella Winston was born and raised in New York City. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Barnard College with a B.A. in Religion, she is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

In addition to her work on Hasidic Jews -- drawing upon what has been hailed as unprecedented field work among the Satmar and Bobov sects -- Winston has also been involved in extensive Sociological research and writing in other areas, including the Sociology of Education, the Sociology of the Professions, and the interaction between culture and identity.

She is the co-author of "Children of the Digital Divide," with Paul Attewell, which appears in an edited collection entitled Disadvantaged Teens and Computer Technologies (Waxman, 2002). The paper reflects some of the fruits of a two-year, NSF-funded ethnographic study of the influence of computers on the academic achievement of disadvantaged youth. She is also working with Cynthia Fuchs Epstein on a study of the process of identity formation among Public Interest lawyers.

Winston's writing has also appeared in Lilith magazine, New York Newsday, and The East Hampton Star.