Penn Jewish Studies Graduate Student Conference 2024

Topic: Jews and Political Authority: Citizenship, Homeland, and Diaspora

On March 11-12 the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania will host a graduate student conference that wishes to explore Jewish relationships to political authority from the biblical to modern era. How have Jews imagined, constructed, and created both physical and conceptual homes under the rule of various political powers and across millennia? How did they transform non-Jewish strangers into neighbors and seemingly foreign polities into homelands? When under foreign rule, how did they wrestle with intersecting memberships in strictly Jewish collectivities, families, and networks? How did they aspire to, imagine, and construct forms of political authority that were Jewish by definition? How did Jewish cultural production – including art, literature, and music – subvert or reinforce political structures?

We invite graduate students from across disciplines, spaces, and temporalities to contemplate how Jewish people have campaigned for, constructed, and interpreted homelands. This theme is particularly broad in order to encourage students from all corners of Jewish studies – ranging from ancient history to musicology; from political thought to literary studies – to share their work.

The graduate student conference will take place in Philadelphia on March 11-12. We have allocated a limited budget for travel and accommodation funding, which we can provide to scholars in need.

While presenters are required to attend the conference in person, in order to maximize accessibility for scholars in non-American institutions, applicants from outside the US may request to participate via Zoom. The conference will be recorded and allow remote attendees to listen to the talks live.

To apply, please send the following to jsp-info@sas.upenn.edu by November 15, 2023:

–Abstract for the proposed paper (300 words)

–A short bio paragraph with your academic affiliation

–A short note indicating whether you plan on attending in person/ request to participate remotely (for non-US based applicants)/ need help with funding traveling and accommodation expenses – please indicate the sum requested and whether you have funding available from other sources.

We anticipate notifying successful applicants by mid-December.

Please note that elected participants in the conference may be requested to pre-circulate their papers and read those of their peers about a month in advance in order for us to have a more fruitful discussion on site.

Best wishes,

The Conference Committee


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Andreas Lehnertz (October 9, 2023). Penn Jewish Studies Graduate Student Conference 2024. medievalJewishStudiesNow! Retrieved May 18, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ri86


About Andreas Lehnertz

As Juniorprofessor of medieval history with a specialization in Jewish history at the University of Trier, Andreas Lehnertz studies the social, cultural, and religious history of Europe. His academic pursuits focus on the nuanced dynamics of everyday Christian-Jewish relations, the study of marginal Hebrew and Yiddish deeds, the study of Jewish and general sealing practices, and the in-depth study of Jewish craftspeople. He wrote a book on "Jewish Seals in the Medieval German Empire: The Authentication and Self-Representation of Jewish Men and Women". His expertise has been further honed through his roles as a postdoctoral fellow in the ERC project "Beyond the Elite - Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Europe" at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and as a member of the Martin Buber Society in the Humanities and Social Sciences, also at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Currently he writes a book about "Jewish Craftspeople in Medieval Germany". Through his research and publications, he aims to make a meaningful contribution to the academic discourse surrounding medieval history and to provide valuable insights into the rich tapestry of European history during this pivotal period.