Yiddish @ Sydney

Proposals are sought for a new edited collection tentatively titled, Jews and Sex. Possible contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following:

Many academic disciplines depend on analysis of primary data captured
during fieldwork. Increasingly, researchers today are using digital
methods for the whole life cycle of their primary data, from capture
to organisation, submission to a repository or archive, and later
access and dissemination in publications, teaching resources and
conference presentations. This conference and workshop will showcase
a number of projects that have been developing innovative and
sustainable ways of managing such data.

The conference will be in three parts: Academic papers on the theme
"Fieldwork: from creation to archive and back"; demonstrations of
tools and platforms for submitting and disseminating digital
ethnographic material; and a hands-on workshop to introduce
researchers to relevant recommended tools.

Held at the University of Sydney

Organised by PARADISEC

December 4 - 6, 2006

Abstract Deadline: August 30, 2006
Paper Deadline: October 20, 2006
For further details see: http://conferences.arts.usyd.edu.au/index.php?cf=11

There's a new unit of study on offer through the School of Languages. EUST 6900, European Cultures and Identity, is a core course for the MA in European Studies. It's being taught for the first time this semester, with lecturers from across the university.

The unit looks closely at European politics, culture and history to introduce students to the issues and events that are important in Europe today. These issues include nationalisms, old and new; local and regional identity in language and culture and in the diaspora; intellectuals, recorders of the past and harbingers of the future; and the experience of everyday life for women and men across generations.

Yiddish will feature heavily in three lectures: dialectology of Yiddish; "language" wars; and Jewish natioinalisms.

The class meets Wednesday evenings.

At last! The newest version of Moodle (1.6) seems to fully support not only UTF-8, but bi-di. Yiddish UofSes can soon access information via a Moodle module. While last semester's work is still in a process of migration (and rewriting from WebCT to fully integrated html pages, glossaries, etc.), I just have to say: cool.

Guests can visit the Moodle site for a limited time via: http://moodle.arts.usyd.edu.au/ and clicking on "Languages". Should be rather easy to figure out after that.