A portrait-style photo of Julia Watts Belser, a white, curly-haired Jewish woman, sitting happily in her wheelchair in front of a garden with pink flowers. She's wearing a patterned red blazer and red kippah (beret) to match.

Julia Watts Belser (she/her) is a rabbi, scholar, and spiritual teacher who works at the intersections of disability studies, queer feminist Jewish ethics, and environmental justice.  She is a professor of Jewish Studies at Georgetown University, Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and core faculty in Georgetown’s Disability Studies Program.  A longtime advocate for disability and gender justice, she currently directs the Disability and Climate Change Public Archive Project, an initiative that documents the wisdom and insights of disabled activists, artists, and first responders navigating climate crisis.  Her latest book, Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole (Beacon Press, 2023), won a National Jewish Book Award. She is a passionate wheelchair hiker, an avid gardener, and a lover of wild places.