EAJS Programme in European Jewish Studies

  EAJS Programme in European Jewish Studies

funded by the Stiftung “Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft” (Berlin) .

2017/18 Academic Year

The EAJS is pleased to announce that three events will take place, or have already taken place, in the 2017/18 academic year as part of the Programme in European Jewish Studies:

1. EAJS Summer Laboratory for Young Genizah Researchers and those interested in the field [Munich, 6 – 9 September 2017]
2. E Pluribus Unum? Multidisciplinarity in Jewish Studies Programmes and Teaching [EAJS Workshop, Girona, 28 – 29 May 2017]
3. EAJS Roundtable on an International Program of MA Jewish Studies: Teaching Methods and Implementation Perspectives [Krakow, July 2018]

Abstracts for these events can be found below.

1. EAJS Summer Laboratory for Young Genizah Researchers and those interested in the field

Location and Date: Munich, 6 – 9 September 2017

Abstract

With the discovery of the Cairo Genizah one hundred and twenty years ago, researchers from diverse disciplines and fields gained access to a considerable and unprecedented collection of rare and original documents. Giving the diverse character of the material preserved, the Cairo Genizah continues to provide an inexhaustible source for interdisciplinary research involving scholars from an array of disciplines, spanning from India to Western Europe. The EAJS laboratory is intended to encourage young researchers (MA-students, PhD-Students and post-docs) to venture into the field of Genizah Studies and facilitate access to primary sources, as well as the available tools, through hands-on training and feedback by senior scholars.

2. E Pluribus Unum? Multidisciplinarity in Jewish Studies Programmes and Teaching

Location and Date: Girona, 28 – 29 May 2017

Abstract

The EAJS held a workshop in Girona dedicated to an exchange between colleagues from nearly a dozen European countries (Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine, and United Kingdom), as well as from the United States and Israel, to discuss the potentials and challenges of the pluridisciplinary character of Jewish Studies.

3. EAJS Roundtable on an International Program of MA Jewish Studies: Teaching Methods and Implementation Perspectives 

Location and Date: Krakow, July 2018 (This roundtable will occur during the EAJS Congress in Krakow, on a date to be confirmed)

Abstract

This Roundtable invites leading scholars and administrative leaders to discuss teaching methods in Jewish studies in different universities; the difficulties and obstacles they face; and possible solutions to these problems; and to set up a working group of scholars and administrative leaders to work on the creation of a concept for an international Jewish studies MA programme.

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2016/17 Academic Year

The EAJS is pleased to announce that two events, one Roundtable and one Laboratory, took place in the 2016/17 academic year as part of the Programme in European Jewish Studies:

1. Turning the Page: Jewish Print Cultures and Digital Humanities  [Amsterdam, 6 – 7 February 2017]
2. Yiddish Language and Culture. A Relay Station of Modernity and Lieu de Mémoire of Postmodernity  [Vienna, 13 – 14 February 2017]

Abstracts for these two events can be found below. Post-event reports for these events can be found using this link.

1. Turning the Page: Jewish Print Cultures and Digital Humanities (EAJS Roundtable)

Location and Date: Amsterdam, 6 – 7 February 2017

Abstract

Jewish Studies and the Digital Humanities with regard to early modern and modern Jewish print cultures. We will bring together Jewish Studies scholars from across Europe, Digital Humanities scholars and curators to discuss opportunities and challenges arising from the new technologies for the textual, cultural and social analysis of Jewish printed sources. The Roundtable will foster cooperation on existing and new projects, and it will formulate a specific research agenda for a pilot study. The exploration of Sephardic-Ashkenazic interaction as reflected in print culture will form a thematic anchor. Digital experience already accumulated in History and Modern Languages will serve as an inspiration.

2. Yiddish Language and Culture. A Relay Station of Modernity and Lieu de Mémoire of Postmodernity (EAJS Laboratory)

Location and Date: Vienna, 13 – 14 February 2017

Abstract

In current models and reflections on “new world literatures” translation plays a crucial role on the level of experience as well as in theoretical reflections (translational turn).

Yiddish literature and culture have been and are shaped by processes of encounter, transfer and transmission to a particularly high degree (e.g. Jewish tradition, politics of translation).

The proposed laboratory aims at confronting and expanding existing notions of translation in diverse fields of Yiddish cultural production:

• Translation of texts: focusing on translation processes and its actors
• Literary criticism
• Translational Literature (critical reflection on Transnational Literatures; Translating Holocaust Literature, the limits of translation)
• Mediality: transfer of genre and media change
• Perception of Yiddish (e.g. Ozick: English as Yiddish)

Applying current theoretical assumptions to Yiddish literature in historical and contemporary perspective we intend to draw together various realms of Yiddish Studies. The lab aims to extrapolate the multifold cultural interactions that have made Yiddish culture a relay station of Modernity and a lieu de mémoire of Postmodernity.