Deadline: August 15, 2023
“Per Aspera ad Astra: The Making of Soviet Jewish Selves”
October 5th, 2023, Columbia University, New York
In his new book How the Soviet Jew Was Made, Prof. Sasha Senderovich (University of Washington) examines Soviet Jewishness through a series of literary and artistic representations. On October 5th, 2023, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, the Harriman Institute, and the Department of Germanic Languages at Columbia University will co-host a one-day graduate conference that is inspired and informed by Senderovich’s book. This conference will examine, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, the implicit question of the title: How, indeed, was the Soviet Jew made?
We encourage interested participants to address the construction of Soviet Jewishness from a variety of scholarly perspectives, including, but not limited to: literary studies, history, anthropology, film studies, social studies, and visual and plastic arts. The
conference does not seek to replicate a traditional panel of research papers, but rather aims to interrogate, collaboratively, topics such as:
- Transnationalism
- Multilingualism and Translation
- Marginality / Liminality
- Ambivalence
- Transit and Mobility
- Borders and Adversity
By August 15th, 2023, interested applicants should send an abstract of their project proposal (no more than 200 words), and their details (names, academic affiliation, contact information)
to: aspera.ad.astra.CU@gmail.com
The extended CFP can be accessed here.
All further inquiries should be directed to aspera.ad.astra.CU@gmail.com
Conference Organizers:
Elaine Wilson, Slavic Languages, Columbia University
Noa Tsaushu, Germanic Languages, Columbia University