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April 6th, Lunch Talk – How the Other Half Looks: Remediating the Lower East Side
Join us at the Robert Penn Warren Center on Thursday, April 6th at noon for a talk by Sara Blair, Patricia S. Yaeger Professor of English, American Culture & Judiac Studies (University of Michigan). Throughout its evolving history, the Lower…
But is it art? Jews, photography, and photojournalism in Britain, 1860-2016 Presented on October 6th by Michael Berkowitz
In a critical period for both journalism and the popularization of the fine arts in Britain, a disproportionate share of press photographers, as well as editors, art-editors, and picture-agency heads were of Jewish origins from 1918 to 1951. Britain’s foundational…
SJAS Conference to be held at Vanderbilt University
The 17th International Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies will be held at Vanderbilt from 15-18 August. The conference will feature world-renowned scholars speaking on all issues of Judaeo-Arabic language, literature, philosophy, society, and culture. The conference will begin…
Blanchard wins Jewish Studies Essay Contest
Alyssa Blanchard’s essay “’Let’s End this Charade’: Performance and Jewish Identity” has been named the winner of the 2016 Jewish Studies Essay Contest. Focusing on Dara Horn’s 2009 novel All Other Nights, set during the Civil War era, Blanchard discusses…
Lucas Wilson, MTS, MA
Reflecting the strength of our Program in Jewish Studies, student Lucas Wilson, MTS, MA received the Zaglembier Society Scholarship from The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. This award recognizes students who “have a passion for keeping the…
February 22- Leo Spitzer to speak on his immigration to the US from Bolivia
Leo Spitzer to speak on his immigration to the US from Bolivia February 22 Commons Center, Room 235 7:00 pm Leo Spitzer is Vernon Professor of History Emeritus at Dartmouth College and Visiting Professor of Oral History at Columbia University)….
Dr. Adam Gregerman to Speak 3/14
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the groundbreaking 1965 Roman Catholic declaration on the relation between the Church and Judaism, both Jews and Catholics have released major theological statements on Jewish-Christian relations. Dr. Gregerman will critically analyze these…
March 21- Sayed Kashua to present "The Foreign Mother Tongue"
Monday, March 21, 2016 7:00 pm- 8:30 pm Alumni Hall- 201 In his talk, “The Foreign Mother Tongue,” Sayed Kashua will speak about his experience growing up and pursuing a journalistic and literary career as a Palestinian in Israel, operating…
March 28- Nashville Reads at Vanderbilt University
Please join us for a discussion of this year’s “Nashville Reads” book THE COLOR OF WATER A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother By James McBride Facilitated by Andrea Blackman and Tasneem Tewogbola of the Nashville Public Library Monday,…
Professor Julia Cohen to present at the 3rd annual International Ladino Day celebration at the University of Washington
Sephardi Lives in Living Color Two editors, seven years, fifteen languages, and hundreds of documents. These are the elements of Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History. The impressive new volume out from Stanford University Press was co-edited by Prof. Julia Phillips Cohen of…
10/12/15- Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields Presented by Holocaust Lecture Series
Now in its 38th year, Vanderbilt’s annual Holocaust lecture series is the longest-running program of its kind at any university in the U.S. This year’s theme is gender and genocide which will explore how the multifaceted entanglements of gender and…
Holocaust Lecture Series Sponsors Screening of Ida 10/21/15
Now in its 38th year, Vanderbilt’s annual Holocaust lecture series is the longest-running program of its kind at any university in the U.S. This year’s theme is gender and genocide which will explore how the multifaceted entanglements of gender and genocide,…
Genocide and Sexual Violence, A Panel Discussion 11/3/15
Shame-filled and stigma-fearing silences, sexism, and the nonrecognition of sexual violence as more and other than violent sex have contributed to the marginalization if not outright omission of the occurrences and functions of sexual violence in genocides from Nazi-occupied Europe…
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Stay Tuned for Upcoming Events!
Events for the 2015-16 academic year have wrapped up, but stay tuned to the website for the latest information regarding events for 2016-17!
10/3: GWU's Joselit on Ten Commandments Controversy in US
Historian Jenna Weissman Joselit (GWU) speaks at Vanderbilt on October 4th: “The Great Ten Commandments Controversy of 1850,” 4:00 P.M., 100 Alumni Hall. Her lecture is free and open to the public.
Michael Bess, Interim Director
Interim Director, Program in Jewish Studies (effective August 1, 2015) Chancellor’s Professor of History Professor of European Studies B.A.(Reed College,, 1979) M.A., Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley, 1983, 1989) 615.322.3340 m.bess@vanderbilt.edu 208 Benson Michael Bess is a specialist in 20th-…
Major in Jewish Studies
The major in Jewish Studies requires a minimum of 30 credit hours: Foundational Course (3), Language (6), Focus Courses from 3 of 4 subfields (12), Senior Capstone (3), Electives (6)