We are pleased to share this Call for Papers for the international conference Parallel Paths, Shared Past: Jewish History and Genealogy in Central Europe, to be held May 4-6, 2026 at CEU’s Vienna Campus: Quellenstraße 51, 1100 Wien, Austria.
Deadline for submissions is November 15, 2025.
The conference is organized by the newly founded Association for Central European Jewish History and Genealogy in partnership with the Jewish Studies Program at Central European University.
he Association for Central European Jewish Genealogy and History was recently founded to foster the use of genealogical methods in critical historical research and to investigate the untapped potential of genealogical resources and databases in rethinking the Jewish past in the region and beyond.
This conference is an inaugural interdisciplinary conference to investigate and encourage the fruitful interplay between Jewish genealogy and Jewish history.
Historical research on the Jews of the Habsburg empire, its neighbors, and successor states is being enriched by an ever-growing corpus of genealogical documentation, which offers new insights into social, economic, educational, and vocational networks and a wide variety of personal and professional relationships. These insights add texture and context to classical historical narratives, sometimes revealing connections, contacts and influences that alter or transform our understandings of individual behaviors, decisions and actions.
The Association’s approach is interdisciplinary, and the organizers welcome proposals for papers from researchers in all fields. Panels are envisioned on some of the following (intertwined) themes and topics:
Social history, business history, migration studies, Sephardic communities, notable lineages, rabbinic dynasties, inter-communal networks, marriage patterns, socio-economic mobility, occupational patterns, military history, conversion, and interfaith relations, as well as technology and tools that can benefit deeper and interdisciplinary research.
Please submit paper proposals of 200-300 words, together with a brief CV by November 15, 2025 via an online submission form. Click here to find the submission form.
All proposals will be peer reviewed.
The language of the conference is English.
Conference lectures and panels may be recorded on video and shared on the association’s website and social media.
An edited volume featuring chapters based on talks given at the conference is planned.
Click here for the full call and submission form