Three of the 2013-2014 Jewish Studies Graduate Fellows: Esra Bakkalbasioglu, Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano, and Sarah Zaides.

Graduate student work takes center stage on May 2 as the UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies hosts its second annual Spring Research Symposium. The diverse topics will include Israeli solar panels, Ottoman poetry, Russian novels, Ladino newspapers, and Polish films.

This half-day event features presentations by five outstanding fellows based in departments across campus. Each fellow has received funding and mentorship from the Stroum Center to help pursue their unique masters- and doctoral-level projects related to Jewish Studies.

The 2014 symposium lineup reflects the diversity of the field of Jewish Studies today. The first panel, chaired by Prof. Joel Migdal of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, will address language and power in the Middle East from a range of perspectives. Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano, of the Interdisciplinary Program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, and Sarah Zaides of the History Department, will both be discussing their research on archival Ottoman Turkish and Ladino manuscripts. Esra Bakkalbasioglu, also from the Program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, will offer a more contemporary take on how Israeli energy projects affect local communities such as the Bedouin in the Negev.

Prof. Migdal, who recently published a new book on American political power in the Middle East, will offer remarks following the first panel presentations. Notably, all three students on the symposium’s first panel were recently awarded the prestigious Schwartz Fellowship from the NELC Department to support their research next year–a fact demonstrating that Israel and Hebrew Studies continue to be a core academic strength of UW Jewish Studies.

The second panel, to be chaired by Prof. Joseph Butwin of the English Department, explores both the culture, and cultural interpretations, of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Cyrus Rodgers, who studies Russian-Jewish culture in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, will be discussing biblical subtexts in Isaac Babel’s Red Cavalry. Denise Grollmus, an English Department student, will discuss film clips from Yael Bartana’s provocative meditation on the Holocaust, And Europe Will be Stunned. Prof. Butwin will offer comments on these fascinating cultural items following the presentations.

A final highlight of the Spring Research Symposium will be the announcement of the 2014-15 class of Jewish Studies Graduate Fellows. A concluding reception will congratulate the outgoing 2013-14 class and welcome the new fellows into the Stroum Center.

See below for the complete schedule of the 2014 Jewish Studies Spring Research Symposium.

Helpful links:

Reserve your ticket for the May 2nd Spring Research Symposium. Last year’s event was completely sold out!
Visit the Grad Fellows’ homepage to read blog posts written by each 2013-14 Jewish Studies Graduate Fellow.
View a PDF flyer for the May 2nd Spring Research Symposium.

Jewish Studies Spring Research Symposium

May 2, 2014, 9:30 am – 1:00 pm
Location: HUB 214

Schedule:

9:30-9:45 am  Welcome

Prof. Noam Pianko, Director, Stroum Center for Jewish Studies; Lucia S. and Herbert L. Pruzan Professor of Jewish Studies
Dr. Hannah S. Pressman, Graduate Fellowship Coordinator

9:45-11:30 am  “On the Grid: Constructing Identity through Space, Language, and Power in the Near and Middle East”

Chair: Prof. Joel S. Migdal, Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano, “Songs of War and Friendship: The Ottoman Verses of Yehuda Behar”
Mickey Sreebny Memorial Scholarship in Jewish Studies
Sarah Zaides, “Tevye’s Ottoman Daughter: Russian Jews in the Ladino Press at the End of Empire” – Samuel and Althea Stroum Fellowship in Jewish Studies
Esra Bakkalbasioglu, “Bedouins and the State: Power and Resistance in the Negev”
I. Mervin and Georgiana Gorasht Scholarship in Jewish Studies

11:30-11:45 am Coffee Break

11:45 am-1:00 pm “Babel & Bartana: Narratives of Jewish Mourning and Recovery in Eastern Europe”

Chair: Prof. Joseph Butwin, Associate Professor, Department of English
Cyrus Rodgers, “Words in the Wilderness: Biblical Imagery in Babel’s Konarmiia (Red Cavalry)”
Richard M. Willner Memorial Scholarship in Jewish Studies
Denise Grollmus, “Dystopian Utopias: Repairing Histories in Yael Bartana’s And Europe Will be Stunned”          Philip Bernstein Memorial Scholarship in Jewish Studies

1:00-1:30 pm   Concluding Remarks and Reception

Proudly presented by the UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, with thanks to our generous community supporters for making these fellowships possible.