Summer School on Jewish Studies: New Beginnings

Summer School | 10 - 14 July 2023, University of Antwerp

The Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for the Advanced Study in the Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania announce a summer program for graduate students in Jewish studies.

THE THEME NEW BEGINNINGS will bring together scholars and students from various fields and disciplines within Jewish Studies to reflect on beginnings and new beginnings as they relate to Jewish studies, including the study of history, politics, thought and culture.

Graduate students at any institution worldwide, in any subfield of Jewish studies, past or present, are eligible to apply. The summer school will take place the week before the EAJS Congress that will be held in Frankfurt – less than a four hour train ride from Antwerp.

The week will investigate how Jews and Judaism conceptualized, experienced, imagined, celebrated, but also warded off the possibilities and limitations, promises and dangers of beginning anew. We will explore conceptual questions (What is a beginning? What is a new beginning? How do beginnings relate to ends?), historical questions (the effort to create new beginnings through and in the aftermath of migration and revolution), normative questions (when are new beginnings legitimate, or even required?), legal questions (how does the law, secular and religious, relate to starting afresh?), cultural questions (the effects of technical innovation such as the invention of print), and familial/personal expressions (conversion, birth, new beginnings as a literary and artistic theme).

The week will also give participants an opportunity to think about the beginnings of their own scholarly careers with professionalization sessions and opportunities for dissertating students to share research.

The application deadline for the New Beginnings summer school  is 1 April 2023.

Applications are submitted and processed through the enrolment platform Mobility Online of the University of Antwerp. They are evaluated by the academic committee and the programme coordinators. All applicants will be notified about the results of selection within 10 working days after the deadline.

In case your application is accepted, you will receive further practical information.

This program is offered at no cost, including all excursions and most meals. 

Fellowships to cover transportation and lodging are available for students who do not have adequate funding from their home institutions.

Apply here: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/research-groups/ijs/summer-school-2023/appl...