Autumn 2013 Schedule

Nail_polish_with_tipex,2013  © 2013 Michal Na’aman

 

Welcome back to a new workshop year. This Autumn Quarter we will be meeting every second Tuesday between 4:30 and 6:00 pm, at the Joseph Regenstein Library, room 503 unless noted otherwise.

This year we are going to put an emphasis on the wider context of Jewish studies, as an academic field which cannot be studied separate from its cultural, geographical, intellectual and historical terrain. As you will notice, this quarter our focus is—what is called, anyway—modern. Next term will be more directed toward late antiquity and the medieval period. It is circumstance and schedule that dictates this, mostly; we are skeptical of rigid periodization, classification, all that.

If you are interested in presenting at our workshop this Winter or Spring, please contact Ori at owerdiger@uchicago.edu

October 8: opening party! at the home of Paul Mendes-Flohr—Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Modern Jewish Thought

Come to our first workshop of the year, meet new and old faces, drink something adult, and hear Professor Mendes-Flohr’s pedagogcal reflections—and introduction of our year—”Jewish studies as a field not a discipline.” (Note: Divinity students may consider this a craft-of-teaching event.)

7:30 P.M. Check back here for location information.

October 21 [Monday]:  “Modernity Thinks with Judaism”—David Nirenberg, Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought; Director, Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society

This meeting is hosted by the Political Theory Workshop. Professor Nirenberg will discuss a chapter from his book. 12:00–1:20 pm. Pick hall 506.

October 22: “A Hasidic Municipality in New York: As American as Apple Pie?”—David N. Myers, Professor of Jewish history and Chairman of the Department of History, University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA)

Professor Myers will discuss his recent research of the Hasidic community in Kiryas Joel, New York State. 4:00–5:30pm. Location: Swift 106.

November 5: “Rosenzweig’s Luther: Or, Germanness Gone ‘Mad'”—Larisa Resnik, Ph.D. candidate at the Theology program, University of Chicago Divinity School.

November 19: “The Times of Jewish Settlers in the West Bank”—Assaf Harel, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University

Harel works on the anthropology of time, and he will speak with us about his research, conducted among West Bank Jewish settlers. Co-hosted with the Philosohpy and Literature Workshop. Swift 208.

December 3: “Contributing to the study of Spinoza and his legacy: A Proposal—Erik Dreff, Ph.D. candidate at the History of Judaism Program,  University of Chicago Divinity School. Scott Ferguson, PhD student at the Divinity school, will respond. Swift 406. Continue reading