Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Basel
Contact details
Leimenstrasse 48Basel
CH-4051
Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0)61 207 48 36
Email: juedischestudien@unibas.ch
https://http://www.jewishstudies.unibas.ch/
Head of Department/Director
Prof. Dr. Alfred Bodenheimer
Tel: +41 (0)61 207 4846
Email: alfred.bodenheimer@unibas.ch
Activites
Awards degrees in Jewish Studies as a sole or major componentBA Jewish Studies
MA Jewish Studies
Offers courses in Jewish Studies
Provides supervision in Jewish studies for students working towards a research degree
Degrees offered
BA
MA
PhD
Main research activities
Jewish studies in Basel are based on cultural studies and are consistently interdisciplinary. The temporal focus is on the modern age, thematically areas of literature, religion and history are the focus.
The Center for Jewish Studies has been able to finance a significant number of research projects in recent years thanks to the successful acquisition of third-party funding (both competitive, e.g. from the Swiss National Science Foundation, as well as from private foundations and private individuals). A look at a selection of the projects that have already been completed, the research results of which have been published in book form or are in print, reveals the breadth of research carried out at the Center for Jewish Studies. They include a book that has become a standard German work on Judaism and popular culture, as well as dissertations on the self-image of contemporary American-Jewish authors, on the situation of the Nigerian Igbo in Israel, and on the biography of David Frankfurter,
For this reason, the Center for Jewish Studies is also currently home to several projects with a wide range of thematic and methodological issues, including literary on Silence with Paul Celan, the poetry of younger Israeli authors of oriental origin or the impact of Ephraim Kishon in post-war Germany; Practical and historical religions such as Jewish bioethics and the history of the Orthodox rabbinate in Germany in the 19th century; historically oriented, such as the Jewish history in Poznan, the emancipation of Swiss Jews in the 19th century, Swiss military camps for Jewish refugees in World War II or a biography of the refugee helper and Jewish functionary Otto Heim.
For doctoral students, joint colloquia with other departments (such as Basel's Eastern European History) or the Jewish Studies department at other universities (Potsdam and Vienna) provide opportunities for a broad research exchange. We also promote networking and profiling young researchers through targeted advice on participating in international specialist conferences and the publication of articles in specialist publications. The center's management is also available to advise and mediate the doctoral students when they are looking for start-up funding or scholarships.
There is a Jewish Studies library
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