CfP/CfA events

GSA 2023: Eastern Europe and the German-Jewish Imagination: Between Modernity and Tradition, Montreal (03.03.2023)

Beginning
05.10.2023
End
08.10.2023
Abstract submission deadline
03.03.2023

We invite proposals for the seminar “Eastern Europe and the German-Jewish Imagination: Between Modernity and Tradition,” which will take place October 5-8, 2023 at the 47th Annual German Studies Association Conference in Montreal, Canada. 

 

Abstract: Reflecting on the complex relation between “Ost- and Westjuden,” Shulamit Volkov noted how increasing immigration from Eastern Europe into Germany and Austria since the 1880s alarmed many established German-speaking Jews who felt “implicated by the deeds and misdeeds of the Schnorrer from the East.” Yet despite a seemingly deep cultural gap between these groups, the “Ostjude” and Eastern Europe remained objects of interest for German-speaking Jews. This seminar seeks to explore the nature of this interest, which took many forms—often tinged with nostalgia, sometimes pragmatic and anthropological, and at times a means for addressing pressing political concerns, like fascism and Zionism. We would like to open this topic to a broad interdisciplinary inquiry, and propose that rather than viewing the experience of 20th-century European Jews as a one-directional move toward western secular urban modernity, the relationship between West- and East-European Jews itself reflects the condition of modernity, namely, the irresolvable tension between tradition and novelty, the village and the metropolis, religiousness and secularity.

Format: Participants are asked to submit a position paper of approximately 7 pages by the end of the summer. The conveners will pre-circulate all contributions among seminar participants. Each participant will give a brief oral presentation of their contribution in the seminar to be followed by discussion.

 

To apply for a seminar, click here or access the portal through the conference website. Applications ask for an abstract describing the nature of your contribution to the seminar (500 words max), as well as a short biography (300 words max). The deadline for applications to participate in a seminar is Friday, March 3rd at 11:59 p.m. PST.

 

Please let us, the conveners, know if you have any questions. We look forward to reading your proposals.

 

Best wishes,

Kata Gellen, Duke University, kata.gellen@duke.edu

Adi Nester, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, adines@email.unc.edu

Source of description: Information from the provider

Fields of research

Literature from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Eastern European literature (Baltic States, Russia, Ukraine), Eastern Middle European literature (Poland, Slowakia, Czech Republic, Hungary), Themes, motifs, thematology

Links

Contact

Date of publication: 20.02.2023
Last edited: 20.02.2023