MONDAY, 2/13/2023: Mendel Kranz on the Arab-Jew and Postcolonialism

Please Join the Jewish Studies Workshop for a presentation by:
Issues of Combat pour le diaspora (via Rakuten)
Mendel Kranz
(PhD Candidate, Divinity School, University of Chicago)

The Politics of the Arab-Jew: Colonialism, Immigration, and Postcolonial Futures

Respondent: Prof. Khalid Lyamlahy (Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies and the College, University of Chicago)

Monday, February 13, 2023 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm
Swift Hall 200
Mendel’s paper, to be read in advance of the session, is available for download below. The password to the document will be emailed to the Jewish Studies Workshop email listserv. If you would like to be added to this listserv, please click the “Subscribe” tab above.

Pre-circulated paper: kranz_JS workshop

UPDATED Jewish Studies Workshop Schedule Winter 2023

Meetings will be held from 5:00 – 6:30 pm CST on Mondays in Swift Hall 200, unless indicated otherwise

Advanced copies of papers (and Zoom links, where applicable) will be pre-circulated via the Jewish Studies Workshop listserv and made available on our website. If you would like to be added to our listserv, you can do so here, or email us at skraver@uchicago.edu or ehoffenberg@uchicago.edu.

Please note that this schedule was updated on February 21, 2023.

February 13

The Politics of the Arab-Jew: Colonial Memory, Immigration, and Postcolonial Futures in North African Jewish Writing of the 1980s

Mendel Kranz (PhD Candidate, Divinity School, University of Chicago)

February 20

H.N. Bialik’s Translation of Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell

Ido Telem (PhD Candidate, Comparative Literature, University of Chicago)

Thursday, March 2, 5 pm in Swift 208

“You could not walk on Krakowskie Przedmiescie before the war”: Experience of Interwar and Holocaust violence as socio-political factor in the Jewish life in Poland in the early post-war years

Kamil Kijek (Department of Jewish Studies, University of Wrocław)

Held jointly with Transnational Approaches to Modern Europe Workshop

With support from the Aronberg Lectureship in Judaica Endowment, Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies

TUESDAY, 12/6/2022: Kyra Schulman on Antisemitism and French Empire

Please join the Jewish Studies Workshop for a presentation by:
Kyra Schulman
(PhD Student, History, University of Chicago)

Map depicting office locations of Ligue des Droits de l'Homme

Map of Offices of Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, created by Kyra Schulman

Empire’s Heterotopia: The Ligue des Droits de l’Homme’s Discourse and Action in Cases of Antisemitism in the Metropole and Colonial Algeria

Respondent: Mendel Kranz (PhD Candidate, Divinity School, University of Chicago)

Tuesday, December 6, 2022 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm Central
Location TBA (via Jewish Studies Workshop email listserv)
Kyra’s paper, to be read in advance of the session, is available for download below. The password to the document will be emailed to the Jewish Studies Workshop email listserv. If you would like to be added to this listserv, please click the “Subscribe” tab above.

MONDAY, 11/28/2022: Ranana Dine on Levinas, Mourning, and Memory

Please Join the Jewish Studies Workshop for a presentation by:
Ranana Dine
(PhD Student, Religious Ethics, Divinity School, University of Chicago)

The Prague Chevra Kadisha prepare a body for burial. Unknown painter, ca. 1772.
(Jewish Museum of Prague, Wikimedia Commons)

Seeing the Face of your Dying Enemy:
A Levinasian Reading of the Petichta of Masechet Semachot

Respondent: Seth Joachim (MA Student, Divinity School, University of Chicago)

Monday, November 28, 2022 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm Central
Swift Hall 200
Ranana’s paper, to be read in advance of the session, is available for download below. The password to the document will be emailed to the Jewish Studies Workshop email listserv. If you would like to be added to this listserv, please click the “Subscribe” tab above.

Pre-circulated paper: RDine_JewishStudiesWorkshop

MONDAY, 10/24/2022: Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Figuring Jerusalem

Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, 
Figuring Jerusalem: Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center
 
(Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

(Cover of Figuring Jerusalem from University of Chicago Press)

Prologue: “‘Why Jerusalem?’ The Politics of Poetry” and

Introduction: “This House, which is called by My Name”

Monday, October 24, 2022 from 5:00 PM to 5:45 PM CST
Please RSVP by emailing Stephanie Kraver at skraver@uchicago.edu
Swift Hall 200
 

An excerpt from Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi’s book, to be read in advance of the session, is available for download below. The password to the document will be emailed to the Jewish Studies Workshop email listserv. If you would like to be added to this listserv, please click the “Subscribe” tab above.

After this workshop, please join members of the Jewish Studies Workshop and the larger community for a discussion between Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi and Na’ama Rokem at the Seminary Co-Op. Information about this event can be found here.

Pre-circulated paper: Ezrahi, Prologue and Introduction

MONDAY, 10/3/2022: Julia Pohlmann on the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753

Image

Please Join the Jewish Studies Workshop and the Early Modern and Mediterranean Worlds Workshop for a presentation by:
Julia Pohlmann
(PhD Student, University of Aberdeen/University of Glasgow)

Caricature engraving featuring people seated around a table.

(Engraving from 1753, The British Museum)

Re-evaluating Jewish and Non-Jewish Responses to the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753
Monday, October 3, 2022 at 5:00 PM Central (via Zoom)

To join the Zoom meeting, click here

(meeting id: 928 2378 7284 / passcode: 1753act)

Julia’s paper, to be read in advance of the session, is available for download below. The password to the document will be emailed to the Jewish Studies Workshop email listserv. If you would like to be added to this listserv, please click the “Subscribe” tab above.

Pre-circulated paper: JSW – Pohlmann Paper

Jewish Studies Workshop Schedule Fall 2022

Meetings will be held from 5:00 – 6:30 pm CST on Mondays in Swift Hall 200, unless indicated otherwise. Due to Jewish holidays throughout the first half of the quarter, our meetings are not being held on the typical biweekly schedule. 

Advanced copies of papers (and Zoom links, where applicable) will be pre-circulated via the Jewish Studies Workshop listserv and made available on our website here. If you would like to be added to our listserv, you can do so here, or email us at skraver@uchicago.edu or ehoffenberg@uchicago.edu. 

Jewish Studies Workshop Schedule – Fall 2022 

 October 3

Secularization vs. Religious Pluralism: Re-evaluating Jewish and Non-Jewish Responses to the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753

Julia Pohlmann (PhD Student, History, University of Aberdeen)

5 pm-6:30 pm CST via Zoom

Co-Sponsored by the Early Modern and Mediterranean Worlds Workshop 

October 24

Figuring Jerusalem Discussion

Join workshop members for a discussion of Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi’s work Figuring Jerusalem 5pm-5:45 pm CST 

After this discussion, the workshop will walk to the Seminary Co-op for an event featuring Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi in conversation with Na’ama Rokem. More information about the event here.

November 28

Seeing the Face of your Dying Enemy: A Levinasian Reading of the Petichta of Masechet Semachot 

Ranana Dine (PhD Student, Religious Ethics, Divinity School, University of Chicago) 

December 5

Empire’s Heterotopia: The Ligue des Droits de l’Homme’s Discourse and Action in Cases of Antisemitism in the Metropole and Colonial Algeria

Kyra Schulman (PhD Student, History, University of Chicago)

CFP Jewish Studies Workshop 2022-2023

Dear Colleagues,

The Jewish Studies Workshop is now accepting submissions for presentations during the upcoming academic year 2022-2023. 

Our workshop provides an interdisciplinary forum for open discourse and critical reflection on student and faculty work in progress. We welcome submissions from graduate students, faculty, and postdoctoral fellows in all departments, fields, periods, and disciplines that pertain to Jews, Jewishness, and Judaism. Drafts of dissertation proposals, chapters, seminar papers, journal articles, and conference papers are all welcome, as are non-traditional academic projects such as translations. In the upcoming year, our workshop is planning to meet on Mondays, but we will meet at different times to accommodate virtual presenters from different time zones.

The deadline for proposals to present in the upcoming year is Thursday, September 1st. The proposals should include a title, abstract (max. 200 words), desired quarter or time of year to present, and an idea of who may serve as a respondent. This material can be sent via email to the workshop coordinators Stephanie Kraver (skraver@uchicago.edu) and Elena Hoffenberg (ehoffenberg@uchicago.edu).

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, thoughts or suggestions regarding the workshop. 

Best regards,

Stephanie & Elena

MONDAY, 5/23/2022: Zavi Feldstein on Jewish Racial Diversity

Please Join the Jewish Studies Workshop for a presentation by:
Zavi Feldstein 
(MA Student, Divinity School, University of Chicago)
  The Holocaust, a Nation: Remaking American Jewish Identity from Ashkenazi Exemplariness to Jewish Racial Diversity
 
(Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty Images)
Monday May 23, 2022 at 5:30 PM Central (via Zoom)
 

To join the Zoom meeting, click here

(meeting id: 950 7175 2347/ password: diversity)

Zavi’s paper, to be read in advance of the session, is available for download below. The password to the document will be emailed to the Jewish Studies Workshop email listserv. If you would like to be added to this listserv, please click the “Subscribe” tab above.

Pre-circulated paper: JSW – Feldstein Paper

MONDAY, 5/16/2022: Stephanie Kraver on the Poetic Imaginary in Dahlia Ravikovitch and Mahmoud Darwish

Please Join the Jewish Studies Workshop for a presentation by:
Stephanie Kraver 
(PhD Candidate, NELC, University of Chicago)
A Meeting Among Writers in the Wake of the 1967 War:
 Uncovering the Political through the Poetic Imaginary in Dahlia Ravikovitch and Mahmoud Darwish
 
With a response by:
Benjamin Arenstein (PhD Student, NELC, University of Chicago)
 
Monday May 16, 2022 at 5:30 PM Central (via Zoom)
 
To join the Zoom meeting, click here
(meeting ID: 974 9081 2906 / password: writers )

Stephanie’s paper, to be read in advance of the session, is available for download below. The password to the document will be emailed to the Jewish Studies Workshop email listserv. If you would like to be added to this listserv, please click the “Subscribe” tab above.

Pre-circulated paper: StephanieKraver_JSW

Appendix of Poems in Hebrew and Arabic: Darwish&Ravikovitch_Poems