CfP: Special issue “Israel Studies as a Global Discipline
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Throughout the past fifteen years, the research field of Israel Studies has expanded far beyond its established geographic base in Israel and North America, thereby creating a vibrant and increasingly diverse community of scholars who specialize in the study of Zionism and Israel.
As a contribution to the intellectual pluralization of the research field, the special issue of the Journal of Israeli History will highlight the global dimension of Israel Studies. In addition to critical explorations of more established regional clusters (like the UK), the special issue will emphasize emerging and less-explored scholarly writing on Zionism and Israel, whether in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, Africa or Latin America. Contributors are invited to critically reflect on the intellectual history of studying Zionism and Israel within local epistemic communities, to situate regional approaches within the global research field and to contextualize the specific controversies that have shaped the field over time, ranging from gender and ethnicity to the question of comparability and exceptionalism. By providing a comparative overview of diverse scholarly voices (including the question of silenced or marginalized scholarly voices), the special issue seeks to question the implicit Eurocentrism within the research field, including the categorization of Israel as a Western nation-state.
All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review. In their contributions, authors will be asked to focus on four research questions:
1) Within a specific local framework, what are the dominant intellectual traditions, historiographic approaches and disciplinary frameworks (Jewish Studies, Middle East Studies, Palestine Studies, International Relations, Jewish and Hebrew Literature) of studying Zionism and Israel – and to what extent and since when is this research framed as “Israel Studies”?
2) What students are trained in the field of Israel Studies – and what are their motivations?
3) How is the field of Israel Studies entangled with political ties to the State of Israel?
4) What could be the unique contribution of specific regional approaches to an increasingly globalized and pluralistic research field?
Guest editors: Johannes Becke and Derek Penslar. For all questions, please contact johannes.becke@hfjs.eu
Deadline for abstract submission: June 15, 2020
Deadline for article submission: December 15, 2020
Please send all abstracts and articles to jihist@tauex.tau.ac.il