The Jewish Studies Student Association at University of Warsaw in cooperation with Institute of History, Mordechai Anielewicz Center and POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews are pleased to invite you to The Seventh International Conference for Jewish Studies Researchers (Warsaw, 14-16 November 2017).

The conference is planned for undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students under the age of 30. It aims at showing the full scope of current interests of young researchers, as well as the current condition of research on broadly understood Jewish Studies. The conference will focus on the global history of Jews and the history of the State of Israel from ancient times until today. The topics cover: history, history of art, philosophy, sociology, cultural, literature and religion studies as well as linguistics (focusing on Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino).

The conference will be accompanied by a program of scientific and cultural events. We are planning to publish a bilingual volume (in Polish and English) in 2018.

To take part in the conference send us an abstract (200-300 words) with information about your preferred presentation language (Polish or English), your brief biographical note and a completed application form at judaistyka.kn@uw.edu.pl. The deadline for submitting papers is 1st September 2017. Participants will be informed about whether they have been accepted or not at the beginning of September via e-mail. The decision of the Organizing Committee is final. Every participant is required to pay a fee of 50 PLN ($13 or €13). We do not cover the costs of travel and accommodation in Warsaw during the conference, but we can help organize your stay in Warsaw.

We will provide you with all the documents your home university may need to help you take part in the conference. For any additional information, please contact us at judaistyka.kn@uw.edu.pl.

More: www.studiajudaistyczne.pl and www.facebook.com/sknjuw

Academic Committee: dr hab. Anna Michałowska-Mycielska, dr Artur Markowski, dr Monika Polit; Organizing Committee: Joanna Filipska, Matylda Jonas-Kowalik, Zuzanna Łapa, Natasza Majewska, Agata Maliszewska, Pola Namysł, Jowita Pańczyk, Natalia Różańska, Anna Sasińska, Bogumiła Siebyła, Mateusz Szczepaniak, Zofia Zięba, Jakub Zygmunt.

The Woolf Institute (Cambridge) invites 250-word abstracts for an interdisciplinary conference on the theme of ‘Emergent Religious Pluralism(s)’. The event will be held at the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, in April 2018 and will include a keynote talk from Professor Nasar Meer (University of Edinburgh). Please submit your abstracts to John Fahy (jef96@georgetown.edu) by August 15th 2017.

Outline

The concept of religious pluralism has been at the centre of major political developments and discourse in recent years. The rise of the Hindu right in India has contributed to an increasing sense of marginalisation amongst non-Hindu minorities, and Muslims in particular. Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric and persistent attempts to impose a Muslim travel ban have similarly left Muslim minorities in the U.S. feeling targeted. In war torn countries throughout the Middle East, the place of the dwindling Christian communities looks ever more precarious, and the rich tradition of pluralism seems to be disappearing. Across Europe controversial attempts, both legal and political, to manage the challenge of religious diversity have led to heated debates on how to deal with difference. At the heart of these developments, the very ideal of religious pluralism itself is being contested. But how have changing realities on the ground informed the ideal of religious pluralism itself in different parts of the world?

Religious pluralism has often been defined in relation to, but as distinct from, religious diversity. David Machacek defines pluralism as “meaningful diversity” (2003) while in Diana Eck’s (2006) words “pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity”. It is not just tolerance, Eck writes, but “the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference”. The ideal of religious pluralism in the American context, at least, connotes integration, and not segregation. More than the merely descriptive diversity, it implies both evaluation and engagement. It is, in other words, a moral response to the existential fact of diversity.

That such definitions of religious pluralism can encompass the broad range of ways in which the challenge of religious diversity can (or should) be managed has been problematised. Taking account of the myriad social, political and historical factors that shape the kinds of religious pluralism that have emerged throughout the world, and throughout history, some now prefer to speak of ‘pluralisms’ (Marty 2007) or ‘modes of religious pluralism’ (Riis 1999). Such modes of religious pluralism are not simply alternative approaches to a common ideal, but constitute complex political responses to particular socio-historical challenges.

But what kinds of challenges elicit what kinds of responses? How is the ideal of religious pluralism conceived, constructed and contested in different parts of the world? Are there identifiable approaches to religious pluralism within or between different religious traditions? How might we describe the various ways in which the challenge of religious

diversity is being responded to today, and who is responding? What is the relationship between everyday experiences of diversity, on the one hand, and ideals of religious pluralism, tolerance and coexistence, on the other?

This conference looks to explore the emergent conceptions of, and commitments to, the ideal of religious pluralism in different parts of the world. We invite submissions that engage with one or more of the following questions:

• How are the ideals of religious pluralism changing in light of recent social and political developments? Are there identifiable ‘modes’ of religious pluralism emerging in different parts of the world? Do we find broader trends that transcend particularities of national (and nationalistic) political discourses?
• In what ways can the history of religious pluralisms throughout the world, and across religious traditions, inform our understanding of recent developments? Is there anything new about how religious difference itself is being constructed and contested?
• What is the relationship between religious pluralism and broader strategies for managing difference, such as multiculturalism? To what extent do ideals of religious pluralism reflect those of other pluralisms, for example, cultural, ethnic or national?
• What kinds of responses are being offered to the challenge of religious diversity by both state and non-state institutions and actors? How is the challenge itself being articulated, and by who? How do the ideals of religious pluralism, tolerance and coexistence relate to the everyday experience of diversity?
• What role do religious actors play? How are theological resources being mobilised to address the challenge of religious diversity, for example, through interfaith dialogue?

International Conference: XX. Century: Image of the Enemy in Europe during World War II.
Venue: Comenius University in Bratislava, Department of General History
Organizers: Comenius University in Bratislava – Michala Lônčíková, Eduard Nižňanský
ATID – civil association, represented by Roland Lanz

Bratislava, Slovakia, October 1 – 3, 2017

Even now, it appears that the issue of the enemy is a serious social problem. Of course, this question is extremely radicalized during war times. We think that the problem of finding one’s own identity, whether at its national, confessional, social and possibly at other levels, can be seen as quite a legitimate process. However, it is questionable, at which point the process is gradually transformed into the classic scheme of “us – them”. Own identity defined by statehood, ethnicity or religious beliefs, may gradually gain another dimension when “they” become enemies – real or fictitious – or even the kind of enemy, which must be eliminated at all costs. We can of course encounter such processes in dictatorships, but also in democracies. After all, the image of the enemy had its form in ancient history as well as in medieval history. For the upcoming conference we are concerned with displaying the image of enemy in the narrative and visualizations especially in Europe at the time of World War II.

Aggression of Nazi Germany and its allies created the basic scheme of “us – them”, as no “Tertium non datur” could be enforced. State propaganda in different countries – both allies of Nazi Germany, and their opponents led by the US – GB and the USSR – was also based on this scheme.

Despite the fact that this process was initially implemented only at the level of words and their visualization (e.g. posters, caricatures), the existing stereotypes about “the others” aimed at their gradual dehumanization. Such understanding of internal as well as foreign political enemy could thus be portrayed by the propaganda as an all-mighty opponent. An image of the Jew was thus propagandistically formed, where the Jew was seen as the creator and manipulator of the anti-Hitler coalition and/or the activities of each of its members the US, GB and the USSR. On the other hand, it also embodied “someone” worthless (dehumanized) who needed to be divested of. Again, we may talk about Jews, Communists, or Anglo-American plutocrats. Such approach could lead to military involvement in the elimination of the enemy, which resulted in a participation in the war against Poland and the Soviet Union. This approach also led to contemporary genocide – better known as the Holocaust.

The war further strengthened the image of the national and state enemy. Fear of “the other”, formed by propaganda, should have gradually become public, i.e. general. On the other hand, the contemporary propaganda also helped to form a “positive” side. The image of a “friend” was constantly formed this way. Individual presentations at the conference shall reflect national particularities of the dichotomy (“friend – enemy”) formed this way.

We invite historians and scholars of related disciplines to apply by submitting a proposal for papers (up to 1500 characters) with an accompanying brief biographical note to michala.loncikova@gmail.com by April 15, 2017. Submissions from Ph.D. students are also welcome. The papers should be approximately 15 minutes in length. The working language of the conference is English.

We are looking forward to your proposal and your participation at the conference.

                                                                                                Mgr. Michala Lônčíková

                                                                                                Prof. Eduard Nižňanský

                                                                                                Mgr. Roland Lanz