Call for Papers

Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts,

invites submissions for forthcoming issues in 2020 and beyond.

Postscripts (Equinox) is a fully refereed journal devoted to the academic study of scriptures around the globe, with a particular focus on the use and reception of sacred texts in both historical and contemporary perspective. Postscripts invites submissions of original critical work that takes up the question of the ongoing reception and mobilization of sacred texts in areas ranging from contemporary politics, to culture, to social life, as well as historical examples that reflect this diverse usage. The journal also pays particular attention to thinking broadly and critically about the very category of “sacred texts”.

In particular, Postscripts is interested in research that explores:

• Contemporary uses of and engagement with sacred texts (broadly understood)
• Scriptures and their cultural histories, particularly forms of reception that go beyond the mainstream exegetical and interpretive traditions
• Sacred texts and cultural criticism
• Materiality and sacred texts
• Performative and iconic dimensions of scriptures
• Theoretical reflections on scriptures
• Classification and categorization of sacred texts
• The arts and sacred texts
• The intersections of religion, textuality, media, and mediation across disciplinary boundaries

Postscripts welcomes submissions for future issues—whether in the form of individual articles or curated collections of essays. We also encourage alternative formats such as moderated forums on specific issues in the field, and although we do not publish book reviews, we welcome review essays that assess the state of scholarship in the field. Potential authors are invited to contact the editor in advance of making a formal submission of an alternative format or curated collection of essays.

Postscripts offers authors:

• Prompt peer-review process and clear publication timelines
• Early online publication
• Print and digital publication
• Supportive editorial guidance throughout the publication process
• Discounts on Equinox books and journals

Bradford A. Anderson, editor

brad.anderson@dcu.ie

Call for Papers:

Research Workshop, Tel Aviv University, May 3–4, 2020

Jewish Craftspeople in the Middle Ages: Objects, Sources and Materials

The significant participation of Jews in medieval European daily life culture is common knowledge in modern Jewish Studies. We know that Jews used the same objects as Christians did – they wore the same clothes and the same jewelry, used the same dishes and lived in the same houses with the same furnishings and equipment. Scholars therefore are speaking of the shared culture of both groups. But in general it is assumed that most of these objects were made by Christian craftspeople, organized in guilds. However, the existence of Jewish craftspeople should be taken into consideration too. Yet, this field has not yet been adequately studied. Sources providing evidence of medieval Jewish craftspeople are rather scarce at first glance, especially in Northern Europe. In the Mediterranean, most regions with Jewish populations have a much broader base of sources.

We can find Jews in medieval Europe working as turners, dyers, window makers, weavers, goldsmiths, armourers, dicers, belt makers, glaziers, painters, playing card makers, bricklayers, needle makers, tailors, watchmakers and mouse trap makers – to mention only a few. Specialist activities are listed, such as engineers, sewerage experts, siege specialists, well builders or mining specialists. We also have evidence of Jewish women who worked as cheese makers, writers, copyists and playing card makers.

A number of questions arise from these simple references, for example: What were the professions that were most frequently chosen by Jews – and why? For whom were the goods produced? Did Jews only work for their own household, or at least for their own community, or did they have the opportunity to produce for the open market? How did Jewish and Christian craftspeople organize, especially regarding the dominant Christian guilds? Did Christian and Jewish craftspeople work together in workshops? How did Jewish craftspeople receive their apprenticeship? What about Jewish craftswomen? How did all these aspects differ, and how did they change from region to region and from period to period over the course of the Middle Ages? 

In order to answer these questions, an interdisciplinary approach is necessary. Apart from classical sources such as charters, city books, court records and normative sources, rabbinic legal opinions can also be consulted, as well as visual sources from illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, texts of Hebrew epitaphs and archaeological evidence. We are therefore organizing an international, interdisciplinary research workshop and welcome paper proposals from all fields that discuss Jewish craftspeople in the Middle Ages, their objects, sources, and materials.

The workshop will take place at Tel Aviv University. All lectures will be delivered in English, and a volume of the conference proceedings will subsequently be published in English.

Scholars who wish to present papers are invited to submit proposals to the steering committee (see address below) by October 15, 2019. Proposals should be written in English and include:

• Full name and academic title
• Academic affiliation
• Contact details
• Short CV
• Title and abstract of proposed lecture

We look forward to receiving your applications, and the steering committee will inform you of its decision in the weeks following the deadline.

Please send your submissions electronically to: adip@tauex.tau.ac.il

Academic Steering Committee:

Simha Goldin, The Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center, Tel Aviv University 

Call for Papers: Beyond ‘Jewish-Muslim Relations’ 

The University of Manchester, 19-20 May 2020

Keynote Speakers: Najwa al-Qattan (Loyola Marymount University), Seth Anziska (University College London), Yulia Egorova (Durham University), and Brian Klug (Oxford University)

Beyond ‘Jewish-Muslim Relations’ invites scholars of Jewish and Muslim histories, cultures, politics, theologies and peoples to share comparative, transnational, and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of these topics as they relate to and come into contact with one another. Despite many theological and cultural similarities and frequent social proximity between Jews and Muslims, Jewish-Muslim relations in both contemporary societies and in diverse historical and geographic settings are often depicted in polarized binary terms. This conference aims to understand interactions and relations between Jews and Muslims in a wide variety of contexts beyond this binary. We encourage papers which offer innovative theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to the study of these topics, and in particular seek papers which adopt a critical approach to the terminology of ‘Jewish-Muslim relations,’ which might itself inadvertently invoke binary, possibly predetermined relations between Jews and Muslims qua Jews and Muslims, often within historical and socio-political frameworks that have reified categories of Jews, Muslims, and inter-ethnic/-religious relations.

We welcome papers on topics including, but not limited to:
• Historical cases of interaction between Jews and Muslims
• Representations and self-representations of Jews and Muslims
• Jewish and Muslim interfaith activism/dialogue
• Religion, tradition, secularism and innovation
• Antisemitism and Islamophobia
• Islamic and Jewish polemic and intellectual cross-fertilisation
• Critical theory and Jewish-Muslim relations
• Gender and sexuality
• Jews and Muslims in the arts, literature and media
• Multilingualism, translation and transnationalism

Paper proposals should include abstracts of 250 words and a speaker biography of no more than 100 words. Speakers are allocated 20 minutes to present and 10 minutes for questions and discussion. Lunch will be provided, with kosher and halal options available on request. There will be a small fee for attendance which may be waived for speakers without institutional funding. Please address all proposals and queries to the organizers (Adi Bharat and Katharine Halls) at jewish.muslim@manchester.ac.uk

Deadline for submissions: 1 December 2019