According to their call, “[t]he annual conference of the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East will be dedicated to the theme of Illness, Health, and Healing among Jewish Communities in the Lands of Islam. The conference seeks to explore these issues from the late seventh century to the present day, focusing on Jewish communities from Afghanistan in the east to Morocco in the west, including the Land of Israel, Iran, the Ottoman Empire and its successor states, as well as Jewish immigrant communities originating in the lands of Islam outside Israel.”
Category Archives: Conferences
International Conference Moving Beyond Prevailing Narratives
Moving Beyond Prevailing Narratives: Rethinking the Medical Knowledge of Pre-Modern Jews at the Crossroads of Cultures, Sources and Traditions
Granada, 7-8 September 2026
The development of medicine and the provision of healthcare among pre-modern and early modern Jewish cultures have received significant scholarly attention, especially in recent decades. However, despite the extensive bibliography that continues to grow, important areas remain underexplored, particularly with regard to medical theories, concepts, practices, and beliefs as transmitted through a wide range of texts.
Continue reading International Conference Moving Beyond Prevailing NarrativesVI Krakow Jewish Studies Conference: Boundaries, 27-28 May 2026
According to their call, they “invite undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students to submit their proposals. [….] Boundaries have played a central role in shaping Jewish identities, communities, and relationships – both within Jewish societies and in relation to the Other. At the same time, Jewish historical and cultural experiences are deeply marked by the crossing, negotiation, and renegotiation of boundaries: geographic, social, linguistic, cultural, religious, and symbolic. This conference seeks to explore boundaries not only as lines of division or exclusion, but also as zones of contact, exchange, tension, and transformation. We especially welcome contributions that address processes of boundary-making, boundary-crossing and liminality in Jewish contexts across time and space.”
Deadline: 25 March 2026.
CfP: Vassals and Lords. Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Western Mediterranean (13th–15th Centuries)
The conference “Vassals and Lords: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Western Mediterranean (13th–15th Centuries)”, taking place in Madrid from 26 to 28 October 2026, invites paper proposals.
CfP: Jewish Medieval Spaces and Places
The interdisciplinary conference, held at the University of Münster from 18 to 20 May 2026, aims to broaden our understanding of Jewish spaces and places in the medieval period and to rethink the methodological approaches through which they are studied. It invites submissions for papers.
Deadline: 13 March 2026
Conference: Annual israeli “Middle Ages Now!” conference to be held in Haifa, 5 March 2026
See program below:
Conference: “Innovations in the Study of Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages: A Scholars’ Seminar in Memory of the Late Prof. Avraham Grossman on the Second Anniversary of His Death,” Bar-Ilan University, March 9
The World Union for Jewish Studies is to sponsor a scholars’ workshop, under a title חידושים בחקר יהדות אשכנז בימי הביניים , at Bar-Ilan University, Monday, March 9. See the program below:

Medicine, sciences and ‘popularization of knowledge’ – EABS Annual Conference 2026
Here is the call for the EABS Annual Conference 2026 at KU Leuven, Belgium, 20–23 July 2026: “For our annual focus area “Popularization of Knowledge”, we invite scholars to comparatively explore the diffusion of medicine, sciences and other (scientific) knowledge (including magic, divination, dream interpretation etc.) beyond the confines of technical texts or groups of experts, with a specific focus on its applicability and socio-cultural utility in Jewish (also in Judeo-Arabic, Ladino or Yiddish), (early) Christian (in Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Latin etc.) and Islamic(ate) (con)texts as well as in ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and other cultures (Syriac, Persian, Mandean, South-Asian, East-Asian etc.). Scholars may address – with a focus on a single text/tradition or a comparative approach, synchronic and/or diachronic – the diffusion of (expert) knowledge into the non-technical discourse (e.g. literature, epistles, political, religious or legal writings) of other learned circles (political, or other elites), religious traditions (e.g. rabbinic texts; the Persian Denkard/Bundahisn; early Christian authors, Islamic texts, Vedic traditions etc.) as well as into wider areas of society. Such a ‘popularization’ of expert knowledge might include the appropriation of concepts about the body, the world/nature and the cosmos/creation or practices (e.g. healing; ritual action, examinations, incantations, divination).”
Borders, Boundaries, and Barriers: Real and Imagined in the Middle Ages (20-21 April, Oxford)
The Borders, Boundaries, and Barriers conference will be held in Oxford in April 2026. The programme includes several board members of MJSN! and registration is available for in-person and online attendance.
Wisdom from the Middle Ages: Philosophical Contributions from the Abrahamic Traditions
According ot their call, “The University of New Brunswick’s Department of Philosophy invites scholars to submit abstracts for an international conference on “Wisdom from the Middle Ages: Philosophical Contributions from the Abrahamic Traditions.” This conference will highlight the important philosophical contributions made by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinkers in the Middle Ages. A secondary goal of the conference is to encourage dialogue and collaboration among researchers who work in different Abrahamic traditions, as well as to prompt new comparative studies among these traditions.”
Deadline: 30 January 2026.