Oxford Seminar in Advanced Jewish Studies

Between Sacred and Profane – Jewish Musical Cultures in Early Modern Europe

October 2019 to March 2020

Project leader: Diana Matut (Heidelberg/Halle-Wittenberg)

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR FELLOWSHIPS

CLOSING DATE: 12 OCTOBER 2018

The Oxford Seminar in Advanced Jewish Studies for 2019-2020 will focus on Ashkenazic, Italian-Jewish and Western Sephardic musical expressions in Europe during the early modern period (excluding European Jewish communities under Ottoman rule).  Special emphasis will be given to the connection of liturgical, semi-liturgical and secular spheres within both composition and performance practice—hence the title “Between Sacred and Profane”.  A group of up to eight Visiting Fellows in each Oxford term will examine the connections between these three major Jewish cultural entities (especially in urban spaces where they were all part of a complex Jewish soundscape) and external connections with the European musical cultures in which this Jewish music developed.

The study of Jewish Music 1500-1750 has been fuelled in the course of the last decades by the discovery of the early modern period as one of the formative periods in Jewish history; by a shift of focus from a ‘high culture’ perspective to the history of everyday life and gender studies, including the vernaculars and their musical expressions; by the rediscovery of important materials relating to the music of the Sephardic and Italian Jewish communities in the West; by reconstructions of Jewish song culture and performance practice in Italy and Ashkenaz; by the discovery of secondary sources on Jewish Music in this period in the writings of Christian Hebraists and fragments in Christian compositions; and by analysis of concepts expressed by Jewish religious authorities with regard to music.  The group will build on this earlier work, examining in particular the manifestations of Jewish music which elude the categories found in Western musical traditions, such as synagogue music, prayer chants, various semi-liturgical songs and hymns and the traditions that would eventually evolve into klezmer, as well as the interdependence and processes of demarcation between sacred and profane in various European Jewish musical cultures throughout this period.

The group will be led by Diana Matut (Heidelberg/Halle-Wittenberg) and will include Ruth HaCohen (Hebrew University), Edwin Seroussi (Hebrew University) and Deborah Rooke (Oxford).

Applications for Visiting Fellowships are invited from scholars working in any of these fields related to Jewish music from 1500-1750.

Each week, one member of the group will present an aspect of his or her research.  In addition, weekly reading sessions will be held.  Weekly seminars will be convened through the duration of two Oxford terms:  10 October to 8 December 2019 and 16 January to 18 March 2020.  These will offer a forum for the Fellows to address central research topics related to the overall theme of the Seminar.  The concluding conference will be held from 16 to 18 March 2020.

Visiting Fellows will receive an allowance of £2,515 (pro rata) per calendar month for the period of their tenure.  Travelling expenses up to £550 pounds sterling will also be provided, and Fellows will be provided with a college association during their time at Oxford.  Fellows will be expected to be in Oxford for at least one Oxford term.  Applicants should indicate the specific research they would undertake in the course of Fellowship and how this research would contribute to the broader work of the project.  Applications both by senior scholars and by scholars at postdoctoral and advanced doctoral level are welcome.

Closing date for applications:  12 October 2018

For more detailed information see: http://www.ochjs.ac.uk/academics/visiting-academics/visiting-fellows

or contact: Dr Diana Matut (diana.matut@judaistik.uni-halle.de)

For any other queries contact: Martine Smith-Huvers (registrar@ochjs.ac.uk)

Call for Applications: Katz Center Fellowship

The Herbert D. Katz Center at The University of Pennsylvania is now accepting applications for the 2019–2020 academic year on the theme of The Jewish Home: Dwelling on the Domestic, the Familial, and the Lived-In.

The Katz Center will devote our 2019–2020 fellowship year to the home—to what happens inside Jewish homes and what connects those homes to life outside. We invite applications from scholars in any academic field who are seeking to advance research that will shed light on this most formative and intimate of contexts for Jewish life, including the very definition of home.

As an object of inquiry, the home has not one door but many. We are planning a year that will look into the Jewish home across many different thresholds/entryways and look back out from the home into the broader world. Relevant topics may include the history of domestic architecture and material culture, anthropological research into kinship, parenting, gender roles, and master-servant relationships; literary instantiations  of the home as an object of memory and imagination; representations of Jewish domesticity in the visual arts, including theatre, film, and television; the analysis of Jewish law as it relates to family life and sex; the economics of consumption and display; the ritual study of the life cycle as it plays out in domestic contexts; and urban studies that approach the home as part of neighbourhoods or larger social contexts, among others.

Eligible projects may be focused on the home in any period of Jewish history, extending from the four room houses of Iron Age Canaan to contemporary Jewish retirement communities. The year is also open to projects that may not be focused on the home per se but are helpful for understanding it, such as research on the history of privacy or the anthropology of childhood. The Center’s goal is to support individual projects, but it also seeks to develop an intellectually diverse cohort which means the ideal applicant will be one willing to learn from and work with scholars from other disciplines or focused on other periods.

Eligibility

The Katz Center invites applications from scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts at all levels. Applicants must hold a Ph.D. or expect to receive their degree no later than August 2019.

An additional opportunity for 2019–2020: Israel Institute Fellowship

With funding from the Israel Institute and in partnership with Penn’s Jewish Studies Program, the Katz Center is offering a teaching fellowship in 2019–2020. Full details are available on our website.

Application opens: June 1, 2018

Application deadline: October 31, 2018

Announcement of fellowship recipients: March 31, 2019

Commencement of fellowship period: Variable, from September 2019 to May 2020

Duration of fellowship period: One semester (fall or spring) or full academic year

Please visit katz.sas.upenn.edu for more information about the Katz Center’s fellowship program and to access the online application portal.