What people are saying

"Leora was our featured speaker for an event open to the Brown community, and she translated her ideas with ease for a broad audience of parents, faculty, students, staff, and community members. Even at 9:00 am on a Saturday, attendance far exceeded our expectations. In fact, we had to cut the discussion short because of the high level of engagement and the many questions from attendees. It was a privilege to work with Leora from the planning stages through the successful culmination of the event!" — Carin Algava, Program Coordinator, Pembroke College at Brown University

Past speaking engagements

Leora has spoken at leading community institutions including the 92nd Street Y and The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco; festivals including the Brooklyn Book Festival, the San Francisco Book Festival, and Fall for the Book; and conferences including the Scholar and Feminist at Barnard College, the National Women’s Studies Association, and StopSlut at The New School. Her organizational speaking includes the American Association of University Women, Planned Parenthood, and the Hadassah Foundation, as well as independent bookstores across the United States.

Campus presentations include Boston University, Brown, Columbia, Duke, Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence, Spelman, Stanford, and the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, among others. She is a regular guest lecturer in the PhD program in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Current presentations

Leora is available for keynotes, panel appearances, and workshops. All presentations are adaptable in length and format to suit your event.

Slut-Bashing, Sexy Selfies, and Deepfakes: How Harassment Has Changed and What You Need to Know

Alternate title, same content: Image, Power, and the Digital Lives of Young Women

40 minutes + Q&A | Length and format are flexible

Leora Tanenbaum has spent three decades researching how culture sexualizes and polices girls and young women. In this talk, she draws on her book Sexy Selfie Nation to trace how slut-shaming has migrated and intensified in the digital age, and what it means for the girls and young women navigating it right now.

Audiences will come away understanding:

• How slut-shaming has evolved — and worsened — in the digital age
• Why “modesty culture” doesn’t keep girls safe, and can actually increase risk
• The three systemic forces driving non-consensual sexualization
• How self-sexualizing can feel like power — and why the reality is more complicated
• Why we urgently need conversations about AI, deepfakes, and image-based abuse
• How parents and educators can approach these conversations with empathy, not shame

Intersectionality Is for Jewish Women: The Case for “Misogynam”

40 minutes + Q&A | Length and format are flexible

Intersectionality has transformed how we understand oppression — giving women of color and other marginalized groups a framework to name their compounded experiences. Jewish women have been conspicuously absent from this tradition. Not because the framework doesn’t apply, but because no one has claimed it on their behalf. This talk corrects that absence.

Audiences will come away understanding:

• The intellectual history of intersectionality and the communities it has empowered
• Why Jewish women have been overlooked within feminist frameworks — and why that matters now
• What misogynam means: Leora’s original term for the specific, intertwined hatred of Jewish women
• How antisemitism and misogyny operate together in ways that neither framework captures alone
• Why the intersectional lens is essential for understanding the current moment for Jewish women
• How communities, institutions, and individuals can apply this framework in practice

To inquire about booking Leora for your campus, conference, or organization, please email her directly. She welcomes inquiries about availability, format, and fees.