Monthly Archives: March 2025

New book: Medieval Silesia An Inclusive History

Sébastien Rossignol, Medieval Silesia An Inclusive History (Routledge, March 2025)

This book presents an innovative retelling of the history of medieval Silesia, by providing a truly inclusive narrative that considers a variety of perspectives.

Silesia, the land on the Odra, at the crossroads of the German lands, Poland, and Bohemia, played a key role in the history of medieval Europe, bridging various cultures. The transformations of the thirteenth century, which included the migration of German, Francophone, and Jewish settlers in new towns and villages and legal, technological, and environmental innovations, had profound effects on language, culture, and the economy; proximity to Bohemia forced a reaction to the Hussite movement in the fifteenth century. This book combines a more familiar history with that of women and of other cultural and religious minority groups – Francophones, Jews, religious dissenters – who shared the territory of Silesia in the Middle Ages.

This study will be an ideal resource for students of medieval Europe or anyone seeking an introduction to medieval Silesia and its diversity of cultures.

CfP: Architektur / Repräsentation / Restriktion – Schaufassaden im mittelalterlichen Stadtraum

25./26. September 2025, Erfurt

The focus will be on an architectural phenomenological aspect in its urban context: Public buildings are generally characterized in the urban space by the fact that they stand out architecturally from their surroundings. Architecture and use interact with the adjacent square and street space in a special way. Architecturally elaborate storefronts often form the framework for a special act or rite, be it the presentation of relics, homage or urban legal acts. In contrast to civic or ecclesiastical institutions, Jewish institutions, especially synagogues, appear to have made hardly any architectural appearance as a result of restrictions or even bans on building in public urban spaces. And yet here too, at least during certain periods (e.g. the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century), more elaborate and architecturally sophisticated measures were taken, which were at least visible in the semi-public space of the Jewish quarter, but sometimes also more prominently in the urban space.

The invitation to apply with short abstracts (max. 2000 lines) on specific case studies or source studies is aimed at interested parties from all disciplines (building research, archaeology, building and art history, history, Jewish studies, monument preservation and museology).

Please send your application by May 31, 2025 to maria.stuerzebecher@erfurt.de or simon.paulus@ifag.uni-stuttgart. The number of participants for both days is limited. Unfortunately, travel and accommodation costs cannot be covered.

The Scales of Suffering: Neo-Lachrymosity and the Writing of Jewish History, Conference, 31 March 2025 (Zoom)

“Is the writing of Jewish history possible without tears and tales of woe? This was the challenge leveled nearly a hundred years ago by perhaps the most influential Jewish historian in the United States, Salo Baron. Since then, scholars have worked to ensure that Jewish history is not reduced to a tale of suffering alone, and rightly so. But in recent years historians of Jewish life—from the Ancient Mediterranean to the modern Americas—have begun to wonder if perhaps we have written suffering and sadness too far out of the stories we tell. In this conference, an international group of scholars will join together to rethink this important question for the writing of Jewish history.”

Leo Baeck Institute Year Book Essay Prize

According to their call, “[t]he Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of the History and Culture of German-speaking Jewry is inviting submissions for its 2026 Year Book Essay Prize. The Leo Baeck Institute Year Book is a fully refereed Oxford University Press journal and covers cultural, social, and economic history. A leading journal in the field, the Year Book has appeared annually since 1956.”

Deadline: 31 March 2025.