Jessica Roda is an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist whose research engages with the intersections of religion, cultural heritage, gender, media, and health. Trained in Europe and North America, she has authored two academic books, co-edited two special issues of academic journals, edited one scholarly volume, and published over twenty scholarly articles, a publication portfolio in English and French.
Her first monograph, (Se réinventer au present. Les Judéo-Espagnols de France, PUR 2018 ), provides a nuanced analysis of the social and political implications of Jewish music practices within diasporic communities originating from Turkey and Greece in France. Her second book, (For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy through the Arts in the Digital Age, NYU Press, 2024 ), examines the ways in which ultra-Orthodox Jewish women, as well as those who have departed from religious life, utilize artistic expression, social media, and technological tools to negotiate and transform religious norms and representation of womanhood. This work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Cashmere Award from the AJS Women’s Caucus (2021), the Hadassah Brandeis Institute Research Award (2021), the 2024 Society for Ethnomusicology’s Jewish Music Special Interest Group Prize, and shortlist 2025 Religion and the Arts Book Award by the American Academy of Religion.
Dr. Roda’s current research examines healing practices and how collective trauma is understood, treated, and given meaning among religious communities and mental health practitioners in North America. As part of this broader project, she has also focused on practices associated with heightened states of consciousness, including breathwork and psychedelics, in Orthodox Jewish communities, exploring how these practices are adapted to theological, cultural, and social frameworks.
Roda has served as a fellow at Université de Paris (Lab Urmis), McGill University, Columbia University (Heyman Center), UCLA (Department of Ethnomusicology), Université de Tours, Hannover University, University of Pennsylvania, and the State University of Campinas in Brazil. She is a collaborator in various collective research programs in Canada, Europe, and Brazil. From 2022 to 2024, she served as the president-elect of the Canadian Association for Traditional Music and, from 2023 to 2025, the co-chair of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Special Interest Group for Jewish Music.
Her public-facing work has appeared in BBC, LaPresse, TV Quebec, The Huffington Post, Akadem, Radio Canada, Canadian Jewish News, France Culture, The Moment, Glamour, The Conversation US, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Times of Israel, and numerous networks in Europe and the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Colombia, USA).
Beyond her academic life, she is also a trained pianist, flutist, and modern-jazz dancer (City of Paris Conservatory), and she grew up in French Guiana, a childhood that shaped her as a person, educator, and scholar.