 |
|
|
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
The Rimon, or Pomegranate, is a symbol of beauty and depth in Judaism. Our series of Master Classes invites you to explore the bounty and depth of Jewish text and tradition with leading scholars of Judaic Studies from around the globe.
Featured Visiting Scholar
BENJAMIN NATHANS
"Towards a Cultural History of East European Jewry: Key Texts"
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 from 4-6 P.M.,
Wednesday, May 2, 2007 from 4-6 P.M. and
Thursday, May 3, 2007 from 4-6 P.M.
University of Denver, Multi-purpose Rm#3430
Daniel L. Ritchie Center, 3rd Floor
2201 E. Asbury Ave., Denver
This Master Class explores three of the most distinctive cultural phenomena of East European Jewry: Hasidism, secular literature in Yiddish, and diaspora nationalist historiography. Professor Nathans works through readings of texts from the late-18th to the mid-20th century. Major themes include religious renewal, interiority, and the question of Hasidism’s alleged modernity; representations of the self and of self-emancipation; and the attempt to forge a specifically East European genealogy for modern Jewish history.
Benjamin Nathans is an Associate Professor of History at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania. He teaches and writes about Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, Russian intellectual history, and modern Jewish history. He edited A Research Guide to Materials on the History of Russian Jewry (19th and Early 20th Centuries) in Selected Archives of the Former Soviet Union [in Russian] (Moscow, 1994) and is author of Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter With Late Imperial Russia (Berkeley, 2002), which won the Koret Prize in Jewish History, the Vucinich Prize in Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, the Lincoln Prize in Russian History and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in History. Nathans has published articles on Habermas and the public sphere in eighteenth-century France, Russian-Jewish historiography, the state of the field of Russian and East European studies in Germany and the United States, and other topics.
Nathans' current research explores the history of dissent in the USSR from Stalin's death to the collapse of communism. It traces the paths by which Soviet dissidents found their way to the doctrine of inalienable rights - the world's first universal ideology - and employed rights doctrine in an attempt to place limits on the sovereignty of the Soviet state. How did "legalist" dissidents (pravozashchitniki) appropriate a tradition grounded in conceptions of the human personality antithetical to Soviet ideology and practice? Was the turn to human rights a symptom of the globalization of moral individualism, or did Soviet dissidents in effect reinvent human rights on their own and in their own terms? Even as rights have become the dominant moral language of our time, this project seeks to de-familiarize and de-naturalize them by studying them in the unlikely setting of "mature socialism." It aims, in other words, to give human rights a history.
|
SYLLABUS AND READINGS
|
|
To obtain a copy of the readings for $10, please call 303.871.3660 or email palarsen@du.edu |
|
|
Upcoming Events
- PUBLIC LECTURES
Monday, April 16, 2007 at 7 p.m. with Stuart Schoffman,
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 7 p.m. with Shaul Magid,
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 7 p.m., with Benjamin Nathans,
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 7 p.m. with Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett
All events are free and open to the public; however, RSVPs are required, as space is limited. Please call 303.871.3660 or email palarsen@du.edu.
|
|
|
