A conference on “Grammars of Coherence and Difference: Jewish Studies Through the Lens of Gender Studies” will be held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Sunday, May 3 – Tuesday, May 5, 2015.
This conference proposes a conversation about how the analytical toolkit of Gender Studies can help to explore the categories “Jewish” and “non-Jewish.” The organizers seek Jewish Studies scholars with a strong orientation towards and interest in how the tools of gender theory can complicate our understanding of Jewish intellectual and social formations.
In order to facilitate discussions across the broadest possible chronological time span, the organizers would like scholars whose work addresses either ancient, medieval, modern, or contemporary Jewish experience. In the conference discussions, the organizers wish to test the proposition that “male/female” and “Jewish/non-Jewish” operate akin to each other and that it is useful to critically analyze the operations of these categories along the same lines.
The conference sessions will allow 20 minutes for each paper presentation. Presenters do not necessarily need to engage with differences between men and women, with gender history, or with the gendered aspects and dimensions of the category “Jewish,” though they are welcome to do so. Rather, the organizers invite participants to think about Jewishness in the ways scholars have long been thinking about gender, particularly along the lines that Queer theory, transgender theory, and new materialist approaches have been promoting in recent years. The organizers are interested especially (but not exclusively) in paper proposals that address the ancient period, the Muslim context, the converso experience, or that employ methods from anthropology or sociology.
Please send proposals of no more than 350 words, as well as a one-page cv, to grammarsmay2015ATgmail.com. Consideration will begin on November 10, 2014, and notification of acceptance will be given by late December. For more information about the conference, see http://grammarsofcoherenceanddifference.tumblr.com
Funding for travel, room, and board is available for presenters. Since the aim of the organizers is to create a workshop-style setting, they expect all participants to be present for the entirety of the conference.
Confirmed participants include Leora Auslander, Karen Barad, David Biale, Darcy Buerkle, Charlotte Fonrobert, Sharon Gillerman, Atina Grossmann, Klaus Hoedl, Joy Ladin, Caroline Light, Shaul Magid, Deborah Dash Moore, Patrice Petro, Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Naomi Seidman, Merry-Wiesner-Hanks, and Israel Yuval. Sander Gilman will be the keynote speaker.
Sponsored by the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and by the Program in Jewish Studies at Barnard College