Yiddish @ Sydney

The Australian Association of Jewish Studies is pleased to announce its 19th annual conference —'Jewish Leadership Throughout the Ages' — which will be convened at Mandelbaum House, University of Sydney, Australia on 11-12 February 2007.

This is an interdisciplinary conference and papers relating to history, literature, the arts and political science, from ancient times to the present day are welcomed. Papers on other topics will be considered, but preference will be given to those bearing directly on the conference theme.

Students engaged in academic research are encouraged to submit proposals based on their work to the program committee. Authors should clearly indicate their student status with their submission.

Essays sought for an interdisciplinary collection co-edited by an art
historian and literary scholar. The growing subgenre of Jewish literary and
graphic culture contains a number of significantly innovative aesthetic
works that are increasingly recognized by literary critics as an exciting
form of alternative narrative that may also represent the inception of a
new visual literacy that has significant implications for the future of Jewish
literary and artistic expression. As the catalog of a recent art exhibit
devoted to this cultural phenomenon states, ³Jewish Graphic novels
represent an important genre in artistic expression and assert the intensity of word
and image in conveying narratives that speak eloquently to the contemporary
viewer. [They] offer intense visual elucidation of Jewish historic and
literary events by combining intense illustration with searing social
issues.² Works to be addressed may include graphic novels by Will Eisner (A
Contract With God: and Other Tenement Stories, Fagin the Jew, The Plot: The
Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion); Czech writer Vittorio
Giardino¹s trilogy of volumes about Jewish life under the shadow of
totalitarianism (A Jew in Communist Prague: Loss of Innocence, A Jew in
Communist Prague: Adolescence, and A Jew in Communist Prague: Rebellion);
Ben Katchor¹s The Jew of New York; Miriam Katin's memoir of WWII survival,
We Are On Our Own; Neil Kleid¹s portrayal of mobsters in Brownsville; Etgar
Keret¹s surreal tales, Jetlag: Five Graphic Novellas; Joe Kubert¹s stunning
account of the Warsaw ghetto uprising in Yossel: April 14, 1943; Joann
Sfar¹s whimsically philosophical The Rabbi¹s Cat; James Strum¹s disturbing
parable of American racism, The Golem¹s Mighty Swing; and J.T. Waldman¹s
recent bold retelling of the essential Jewish myth of power and
powerlessness in Megillat Esther. The editors also hope to include an essay
or two on the impact of Art Spiegelman¹s seminal works of Holocaust oral
history in Maus: A Survivor¹s Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: A
Survivor¹s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, which crystallized the
acceptance of the graphic novel as a legitimate literary form. This
collection aspires to fill an important gap in existing scholarship by
offering the first collection of critical discussions to solely address the
way that Jewish graphic novels grapple with Jewish history, cultural
politics, antisemitism, portrayals of Ashkenazi and Sephardic identities,
the role of the Holocaust in the artist¹s cultural and moral imagination,
political controversy, literature, sacred texts, and myth through these
captivating works that render image and text in hitherto unimagined forms.
Other essays might consider the important role of autobiography in the
graphic novel and the role of the graphic novel in the Jewish Studies
classroom. This list is by no means exhaustive; other relevant theoretical,
pedagogical, or cultural approaches will be considered.

Authors are encouraged to use images whenever appropriate but they are individually
responsible for all necessary permissions. Papers from all disciplines, or
interdisciplinary submissions (whether focused on single works or
comparative discussions), are welcomed. Send brief bios along with abstracts
(300 words) or complete essays that follow the current edition of the MLA
Style Manual to both Ranen Omer-Sherman rosherman@miami.edu and Samantha
Baskind s.baskind@csuohio.edu by 11/30/06.

Good Livejournal entry by T. Senft, lecturer in media studies:

Guidlines here

Yiddish Theatre: New Approaches, edited by Joel Berkowitz. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2003 Oxford.

The Libraries of The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and Jerusalem
(the Schocken Library) are pleased to announce the formation of a new
on-line journal dedicated to the history of the Jewish book. This journal, entitled "Quntress: An online journal for the history, art, and culture of the Jewish book," will be published electronically on a projected annual basis, with regular updates between official publications.