We are pleased to share this Call for Papers for the British Association of Jewish Studies 2017 annual conference, whose theme will be Jews on the Move: Exploring the movement of Jews, objects, texts, and ideas in space and time. The conference will be held in Edinburgh, July 10-12, 2017.
From the earliest accounts travel and migration, movement across space and time characterise Jewish history. No less crucial than the movement of people is the movement of texts, objects, and ideas, which travel both physically and intellectually as generations in distant locations engage with these at different times and places. Jews themselves are associated with travel and migration, historically and in cultural production. This conference invites contributions of papers and panel proposals within the broad theme of the conference. What follows is a list of thematic headings which is indicative, but not exhaustive:
- Jews and migration
- Jews in / and the archive
- Texts which move
- Jewish journeys, journeys of Jews
- Literary explorations of travel, movements, and migration and their consequences
- Displaying Jews: museums, heritage, art
- Jewish objects: from vernacular and ritual to display and memory
As usual with BAJS conferences, papers on topics unrelated to the conference theme are also welcome, including proposals by graduate students wishing to present on their doctoral research.
Confirmed keynote speakers:
- — Professor Charlotte Hempel (Birmingham): People and ideas on the move: the evidence from Qumran
- — Professor Tony Kushner (Southampton): Jews as refugees: special or not?
- — Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (New York / Warsaw): Expanded Geography: An Epilogue to the History of Polish Jews at POLIN Museum
- — Professor Hana Wirth-Nesher (Tel Aviv): To Move, to Translate, To Write: Jewish American Immigrant Voices
Paper proposals should include an abstract of no more than 300 words and a speaker biography of 100 words max.
Panel proposals should include a rationale for the panel of no more than 500 words, abstracts of 300 words max for each paper proposed as part of the panel and speaker biographies of no more than 100 words.
Please send paper and panel proposals and all conference-related correspondence to: BAJS2017@ed.ac.uk.
Deadline for submission of paper and panel proposals:
- — 31 January 2017.
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