Call for Papers
A Symposium on “Jews Color Race”
To be held at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, June 18, 2014.
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute invites proposals for papers to be
given at a symposium on “Jews Color Race” which will take place on
June 18, 2014.
The aim of the symposium is to explore new ways of describing and
analyzing Jewish identities that take into account changes in public
and academic discourses, as well as demographic changes,
transformations of identity politics, globalization, and race
relations; and the resurgence of anti-Semitism.
The symposium will focus on issues related to Jewish identities in
academic and social discourses around the world and will examine the
impact of the racialization of discourses about the Jews, which have
always been complex and must be understood in their historical and
ideological contexts. Recent developments in genetics have renewed
biological definitions of Jewish identity, and yet the debate is still
locked into black/white binaries. How Jews are perceived and how Jews
perceive other ethnic groups will be examined in order to better
understand the impact of prejudiced perceptions on representations in
popular culture and academic discourse. Among the topics to be
discussed will be whiteness, racism and anti-Semitism, stereotyping,
relations between Jews and other Others (Blacks, Muslims, Arabs),
globalization, postcolonialism, the Jewish body, Black Jews / Jews as
Blacks, European diversity and adversity, and multiple or conflicted
identities that cross boundaries of gender, color, sexuality, and
religion.
Researchers and doctoral students in the fields of anthropology,
sociology, cultural studies, literature, Jewish and world history, and
genetics should send an abstract of their proposal (up to 500 words)
together with a short CV as an e-mail attachment in a Word Document
file no later than December 31, 2013, to
DafnaS@vanleer.org.il<mailto:DafnaS@vanleer.org.il>
Further details may be obtained from Prof. Efraim Sicher:
sicher@bgu.ac.il<mailto:sicher@bgu.ac.il>
The symposium will be conducted in English.
