The Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies

Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies
1155 East 60th Street, Room 302A
Chicago, IL 60637
773.702.7108
ccjs@uchicago.edu

 

Event Archive 2016 - Present

'Not in Search of Messages': A Primo Levi Study Day

Description: 
This workshop brings together a group of scholars from various fields of inquiry for a sPlease join us for a study day marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Primo Levi. On Monday, October 28th, at 5 p.m., Philippe Mesnard, Professor of Comparative Literature at the CELIS (Centre de Recherches sur les Littératures et la Sociopoétique), Université Blaise Pascal, will deliver a keynote lecture titled, 'The Truth of the Witness According to Primo Levi.' We will then spend the day on Tuesday, October 29th, in a series of seminars with literary scholars, historians, and anthropologists from the US, Europe, and Israel. Primary readings (recommended but not required for participation in the seminar) along with more information are available at: ccjs.uchicago.edu/primolevi. This event is sponsored by the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies and the Jean and Harold Gossett Fund in Memory of Holocaust Victims Martha and Paul Feivel Korngold, the France Chicago Center, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, and the Department of Romance Literatures and Languages.tudy day to commemorate Primo Levi’s 100th birthday, which takes place in the summer of 2019. Rather than inviting a group of Levi specialists for an academic conference, we have chosen to invite scholars from a wide range of fields, including Anthropology, Black Studies, Genocide Studies, Jewish History, and Comparative Literature, for a conversation about the enduring relevance of Levi’s writing. The keynote lecture by Philippe Mesnard (Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of Modern Languages, Université Clermont Auvergne) will set the stage for the conversation through a broad discussion of questions of testimony in literature. On the following day, participants have been invited to choose a primary text by Levi (if they wish, it can be paired with a brief text by another author), which will be pre-circulated to everyone interested in the workshop. Participants will then lead seminars of 75 minutes each on their chosen texts. This event is sponsored by the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies and the Jean and Harold Gossett Fund in Memory of Holocaust Victims Martha and Paul Feivel Korngold, the Chicago France Center, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, and the Department of Romance Literatures and Languages.
Date: 
Monday, October 28, 2019
Category: 
Workshops

Screening of 'Beyle: The Artist and Her Legacy (A Film)'

Description: 
Yiddish lecturer Jessica Kirzane, in collaboration with the Greenberg Center, will host a screening of The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project documentary short film on the life and work of Yiddish poet and cultural activist Beyle Shaecter-Gottesman (https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/about/news/beyle-artist-and-her-legacy-film). The link includes a trailer for the film as well as a more detailed description. The screening will include a Q&A session with the director of the Wexler Project, Christa Whitney, about the film, and about her oral history work in general.
Date: 
Thursday, October 24, 2019

Zohar Weiman-Kelman - 'Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women's Poetry'

Description: 
Join us for a conversation with Zohar Weiman-Kelman, assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, about the author's new book, 'Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women's Poetry.' Bringing together Jewish women’s poetry from the late nineteenth century, the interwar period, and the 1970s and 1980s, Weiman-Kelman takes readers on a boundary-crossing journey through works in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew, setting up encounters between writers of different generations, locations, and languages. 'Queer Expectations' highlights genealogical lines of continuity drawn by authors as diverse as Emma Lazarus, Kadya Molodowsky, Leah Goldberg, Anna Margolin, Irena Klepfisz, and Adrienne Rich. These poets push back against heteronormative imperatives of biological reproduction and inheritance, opting instead for connections that twist traditional models of gender and history. Looking backward in queer ways enables new histories to emerge, intervenes in a troubled present, and gives hope for unexpected futures. Refreshments will follow and signed books will be available. The event is sponsored by the Yiddish Program and the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies.
Date: 
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Category: 
Discussions

Book Talk with Zohar Weiman-Kelman

Description: 
Bringing together Jewish women's poetry in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew from the late 19th century through the 1970s, this talk will explore how Jewish women writers turned to poetry to write new histories. Developing 'queer expectancy' as a conceptual tool for understanding how literary texts can both invoke and resist what came before. Weiman-Kelman demonstrates how poets such as Emma Lazarus, Leah GOldberg, ANna Margolin, and Adrienne Rich push back against heteronormative imperatives of biological reproduction and inheritance, opting instead for connections that twist traditional models of gender and history. Looking backwards in queer ways, thus enables new histories to emerge, and intervenes in a troubled present, giving hope for unexpected futures.
Date: 
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Category: 
Discussions

Abigail Akavia - 'Cassandra, Hecuba, and anti-Tragedy: Hanoch Levin's Theater of Suffering'

Description: 
Abigail Akavia will present her work at a joint meeting of the Theater and Performance Studies and Jewish Studies workshops. Dr. Akavia is a Minerva Stiftung post-doctoral fellow at Leipzig University’s Institute for Theater Studies and has also worked as a dramaturg, actress, and theater director in Israel, Chicago, and Leipzig. Her paper will consider the aesthetics of suffering in two plays by Hanoch Levin, the foremost playwright of late 20th century Israel. Both plays offer a reformulation of Greek tragedy which foregrounds the body in situations of pain, grief, disease, and desire. The explicit physical dimension of these works complements Levin’s self-reflective use of the theater as a metaphor for life, wherein heroic action is impossible in the face of life’s senseless suffering and the relentless cruelty of mankind. The respondent will be Michal Peles-Almagor, PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature.
Date: 
Monday, October 14, 2019
Category: 
Lectures

Thomas Meyer - 'The Human Condition vs. Classical Political Philosophy: Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, and the ‘War of Ideas' ”

Description: 
Thomas Meyer, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, will present a lecture for the Philosophy of Religions Workshop. Dr. Meyer is a scholar of the history of ideas in the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular interest in 20th-century German Jewish thought. He has published several books on the topic, including his most recent, 'Was Heisst und zum welchem Ende studiert man jüdisches Denken?'(2013). For information or accommodations to attend this event, please contact workshop coordinators Rebekah Rosenfeld (rrosenfeld@uchicago.edu) and William Underwood (wunderwood@uchicago.edu).
Date: 
Monday, October 14, 2019
Category: 
Lectures

Faculty-Student Meet and Greet

Description: 
The Student Advisory Board of the Greenberg Center is hosting a back-to-school get together for all students and faculty members -- families are welcome too! The event will take place at the 1155 East 60th Street Building, Room 319 East. This will be an opportunity for students to meet some of our Jewish Studies faculty and to hear some remarks from each of them on the topic 'Sin and Atonement.' Kosher refreshments will be served. For information, contact Nancy Pardee at npardee@uchicago.edu.
Date: 
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Category: 
Social Gatherings

CMES Friday Lecture with Khaled Furani

Description: 
Recovering Khalifa for an Ethics of Fragility: Fragments of a Palestinian Challenge from Within the Leviathan Khaled Furani Department of Sociology and Anthropology Tel Aviv University FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2019 3:00 PM SWIFT HALL THIRD FLOOR LECTURE ROOM (RECEPTION TO FOLLOW IN SWIFT HALL COMMON ROOM) Khaled Furani is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University. His research interests lie in secularism, poetics, social theory, history of anthropology, Palestine, and the modern condition. He is the author of Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry (Stanford, 2012). His new book, Redeeming Anthropology: A Theological Critique of a Modern Science has just come out with Oxford University Press. CO-SPONSORED BY: Divinity School Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center
Date: 
Friday, September 27, 2019
Category: 
Lectures

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