Australian Association for Jewish Studies (AAJS) Conference, Sydney, Australia
The publication of seminal texts such as Sander Gilman’s The Jew’s Body (1992) and more recent works including David Nirenberg’s Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (2013) testify to the potency that ideas about Jews have had in the formation of broader philosophical and ideological world views. Ranging from philosemitic fantasies through to longstanding anti-Jewish caricatures, understanding how Jews have been ‘imagined’ across time and place can shed new light on both historic and contemporary views of Jews and Judaism. This conference
seeks to focus on these imaginings and asks how they have shaped views about Jews within and beyond the Jewish world, over time and in the present. Further, it asks how the creation of these ‘Jewish imaginaries’ has influenced how Jews think about themselves and their own
societies. Where have these ideas about Jews, their origins, culture and influence crossed over into Jewish thought and writing and what has been its effect?
We invite proposals for papers relating to current research in this broad area, including: