Cross-disciplinary Encounters in Gender and Sexuality Research

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

In this cross-disciplinary session, scholars from the fields of Jewish literature, history, religion, arts, and culture will enter into a conversation prompted by their recent books to explore their contributions to the field of gender and sexuality. Our overall objective is bi-directional in that we will examine the ways that gendered perspectives impact Jewish Studies and the ways that Jewish Studies enhances the field of gender and sexuality more generally. Marjorie Lehman, a scholar of Talmud and Rabbinics, will generate a discussion that includes responses to the following questions:

Where are we today and what is different today about the kind of research we are doing?
Where do we think our fields should be headed and what do we continue to overlook?
What emerges from shedding a cross-disciplinary light on our work?

Ronnie Grinberg focuses on how secular Jewish masculinity helped masculinize American intellectual life in the twentieth century. She will highlight how American Jewish masculinity enhances our understanding of American intellectual history, Jewish studies, and the field of gender and sexuality. Robin Judd considers the ways in which gender and family history complicate and extend our understandings of liberation, immigration, and ‘recovery’ after the Holocaust. Weaving together lessons from trauma and memory studies, as well as the history of emotion, she encourages new ways of thinking about transnational and global Jewish family and migration narratives. Karolina Krasuska discusses how the focus on Soviet-born Jewish authors reshapes Jewish American fiction. Displacing the post-Cold War lens on this literature results in including the previously subdued voices of (queer) women, centering the “Other Europe” and the Soviet experience. Sarra Lev’s brings the perspective of the early rabbinic sages and their response to intersex bodies. Lev will talk about the various ways in which the rabbis attempted to fit non-binary bodies into an otherwise binary halakhic system. Jessica Roda invites us to think about ultra-Orthodox women in the arts through the lens of postcolonial feminism. Her work offers fresh insights into womanhood and religious practices within Western and Jewish contexts, emphasizing the intersection of gender, religion, and artistic expression.

Sub Unit

• Gender & Sexuality Studies

Moderator

• Marjorie Lehman, The Jewish Theological Seminary

Discussants

• Robin Judd, The Ohio State University

• Karolina Krasuska, University of Warsaw

• Ronnie Grinberg, University of Oklahoma

• Sarra Lev, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

• Jessica Roda, Georgetown University

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 02