Call for Papers: Belarus Jewish history & culture conference, Minsk. Submission deadline Feb. 1, 2020

We are pleased to share this Call for Papers for an international conference on Belarus Jewish heritage in Minsk in June 2020.

Submission deadline, February 1, 2020

The history, culture and heritage of Jews in Belarus across the ages

23-25 June 2020, Minsk

The Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center and The Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton are delighted to announce a major international conference on the history and culture of Jews in Belarus across the ages to be held in Minsk, 23-25 June 2020.

Belarus is crucial to the scholarship on many aspects of Jewish Eastern-Europe history (including religious thought and life, the emergence of modern political parties or the creation of a modern literature). Building on the significant research published in the last decade on different aspects of the history of Belarusian Jews, we want to provide a platform to understand what is special about the history of Jews in Belarus.

The conference will bring together specialists from Eastern Europe and other parts of the world to discuss the latest findings on all aspects of the history, culture and heritage of Jews in Belarus. We particularly encourage contributions that will look at the interactions between Jews and Belarusians and at the emergence of a distinctive Belarusian-Jewish identity and culture.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

• • Political, social and economic history (from early modern to contemporary period).
  • Ethnography and anthropology
  • Culture: literature, music, art, theatre, cinema and language
  • Family, gender, community life and education
  • Antisemitism and Holocaust
  • Heritage, archives and museum

We are particularly keen to welcome young researchers and PhD students and will embed ‘early career sections’ in each panel. We have a limited number of bursaries available for PhD and postgraduate students as well as early career researchers. If you would like to be considered, please state this as part of your proposal and send your CV (maximum 2 pages). We are also hoping to cover for accommodation and meals.

The working languages will be English and Russian. Paper proposals should include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a speaker biography of maximum 100 words.

Email: [email protected]

Deadline to submit proposals: 1 February 2020. We will send notifications of acceptance/rejection by the end of February 2020.

Confirmed keynote speakers: Dr Inna Gerasimova; Professor Mikhail Krutikov.

Scientific committee: Mikhail Krutikov, Claire Le Foll, Elissa Bemporad, Shaul Stampfer, Maria Kaspina, Aleksandr Ivanov, Magdalena Waligórska.

See CfP on Parkes Institute Twitter feed