Much of Jewish history can be viewed as a struggle between competing textual traditions, often motivated by the reintroduction and reappropriation of lost texts. The redacted texts of the biblical and rabbinic canons; the revelations of the Genizah and the Dead Sea Scrolls; the invention and revision of Jewish literary traditions by the scholars, writers, artists and thinkers of Jewish modernity – each of these discoveries of lost texts has served to complicate and expand the borders of Jewish life in the past and in the present.

We invite papers from graduate students that explore lost texts – broadly defined – as central objects of inquiry in Jewish studies as well as submissions that reflect on how Jewish Studies itself is a site where forgotten or marginalized traditions become present through the mediation of academic discourse. Papers from a wide variety of methodological approaches and time periods will be considered.

Suggested panel topics:

Biblical Canonization, Interpretation and Reinterpretation
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Diversity of Second Temple Judaism
The Cairo Genizah and the Reevaluation of Medieval Jewish History
From Out of the Margins: Feminist Hermeneutics and Feminist Texts
Jewish Modernity: A Matrix of Lost Texts
Contemporary Theological Responses to Rediscovered Traditions
The Role of Visual Art and Visual Culture in Jewish Communal Practice and Creativity

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words and a current CV to macarson@jtsa.edu by October 31st. A travel grant will be awarded to the most outstanding abstract.