Works-in-Progress Group in Jewish Studies

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

This session is an informal, highly collegial gathering in which a group of AJS participants workshops two pre-distributed papers. All are welcome. We have met each year at the AJS for the past 20 years. We are proud to provide a space that combines serious intellectual exchange with a warm, relaxed atmosphere that can be particularly inviting for junior scholars or first-time attendees of the conference.

We aim to engage with current research in any and all fields of Jewish Studies and to allow presenters to share papers in progress with a welcoming and critically productive group of colleagues. Works-in-Progress is always an interdisciplinary environment where we discuss two papers from different disciplines within Jewish Studies (this year is by a medieval Jewish historian and a specialist in the modern Yiddish press) and where scholars from numerous fields take part in the conversation.

Our presenters for the 2024 meeting of the AJS are Jennifer Grayson, Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Roni Masel Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Grayson will share a paper titled “At the King's Gate: The Jews of Abbasid Baghdad, 750-1258.” Masel’s paper is entitled “Yiddishland Unbound: Interwar Yiddish Culture in South Africa and the Colonial Condition.” Both papers represent cutting-edge research in their respective fields, and exemplify the disciplinary diversity of the Works-in-Progress group.

The co-chairs of the Works-in-Progress session are Jordan Katz, Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and Ayelet Brinn, Assistant Professor at the University of Hartford.

In late November, in preparation for our meeting during the AJS, we will circulate the two papers. Those interested in attending should contact one of the co-chairs in order to receive the papers in advance.

Sub Unit

• Interdisciplinary Approaches

Individual Presentations

• At the King's Gate: The Jews of Abbasid Baghdad, 750-1258 - Jennifer Grayson, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Yiddishland Unbound: Interwar Yiddish Culture in South Africa and the Colonial Condition - Roni Masel, University of California

Respondent

• Jordan Katz, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 07