We are pleased to share this Call for Papers from the Bet Tfila – Research Unit at Brauschweig Technical University.
Constructions of Jewish Cultural Heritage in Non–fictional Texts on Architecture, Urbanism, and Space
Workshop at the Technische Universität Braunschweig
Planned for July 3–4 2023
Deadline: January 31, 2023
Since the Haskalah and especially during the development of the Wissenschaft des Judentums (Science of Judaism), authors have been dealing with architecture, urban structures and places, cultural landscapes or spaces that have been thought of or can be read as part of the Jewish—material as well as immaterial—cultural heritage.
The dialogue of built, planned and/or imagined architecture and its representation in the medium of text is the focus of this workshop.
The workshop asks for non–fictional texts on architecture, urbanism, and space and their contributions to the construction of Jewish cultural heritage.
We are looking for papers on a range of text types and disciplines, such as architectural theoretical and critical writings, art historical literature, contemporary architectural criticism as well as travel literature, city guides, ego documents, or postcards from the period between the early modern period and the 1960s.
The lectures could be overviews of individual authors, groups of authors, or associations as well as historiographical literature reviews of individual buildings, object dependent summaries, and the analysis of programmatic, critical texts, journals, or manifestos. The individual lectures should focus on the respective contribution of the texts and their authors to a process of negotiating Jewish cultural heritage that has yet to be described.
Furthermore, the different—Jewish as well as non–Jewish—authors and their intentions in the negotiation of Jewish identity constructions will be examined. Which sign systems, narratives or symbols are used? Which motifs, places, landscapes, or territories are the focus of the text? How do they change over the time and situation of the author(s)? Which Jewish and which non–Jewish actors work on the construction of Jewish cultural heritage? With what intention? These and other questions will be discussed in depth at the workshop, if possible, based on texts that have so far hardly been the focus of research or have not been examined in the context outlined here.
The Institute for the History of the German Jews, Hamburg, and Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture, Technische Universität Braunschweig, organize this workshop in the framework of the research project “Constructions of Jewish Cultural Heritage in Theoretical–Critical and Literary Texts on Architecture and Space,” that is funded by the German Research Foundation and that the two project partners are conducting in the context of the DFG Priority Program 2357 “Jewish Cultural Heritage.”
The workshop ia planned to take place from July 3–4, 2023 at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. It is organized by Dipl.–Ing. Mirko Przystawik and PD Dr.–Ing. Ulrich Knufinke from Bet Tfila – Research Unit. The organizers plan to publish the conference proceedings jointly with the project’s results.
Conference languages are German and English.
Contributions are welcome from all disciplines and from researchers of all stages of qualification.
Proposals for papers should not exceed 2,300 characters (including blanks).
Please send your abstract including a short CV in one PDF file by January 31, 2023 to:
Dipl.–Ing. Mirko Przystawik, [email protected]
Decisions on the acceptance of proposed topics will be communicated by February 28, 2023.
Travel allowances can be granted to a limited extent in accordance with the Lower Saxony Travel Ordinance (NRKVO). For speakers from the SPP Jewish Cultural Heritage, travel expenses should generally be covered from the project’s own funds.
NOTE: The workshop on non–fictional texts in Braunschweig in 2023 will be followed by a second one, which will probably take place in Hamburg in 2024 and which will be dedicated to the topic of fictional texts. A separate call for papers will be issued in time.