Call for Papers: Special Issue of Postscripts

Inscriptions: A Special Issue of Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts and Contemporary Worlds
Special Issue editors:
Jeremy Stolow (Communication Studies, Concordia University, Canada)
Lisa Gitelman (History of Science, Harvard University)
Call for Papers
The title of this special journal issue, “Inscriptions,” is meant to draw attention to a muchneglected
topic in the study of sacred texts: their materiality. Our goal is to challenge a longstanding
‘discursive’ bias among scholars of literature and belief, whereby it is often assumed that the study of
texts is sufficiently exhausted through an examination of the authorial intentions and the interpretive
possibilities of linguistic utterances, with recourse to the well-honed tools of philology, hermeneutics,
psychoanalysis, narratology, or deconstructivist reading strategies. While recognizing the importance of
such work, we wish to approach texts by focussing instead on their physical properties, as well as the
dynamic interactions of devices, techniques, and habits that lie beneath and within a given text, helping to
define the conditions for its perceptual apprehension and bodily engagement.
For this special issue of Postscripts, we seek contributions that elaborate and extend our proposed
consideration of the materiality of sacred texts broadly considered, attending to such things as their
layout, their material substrate (leather, paper, computer screens, etc), or the relationships between sacred
texts and their complementary technologies of transportation, storage, indexing, artificial illumination, or
waste management. What are the connections between materiality and belief? How have new media
helped to reveal or to confound sacred matter? Are there historically and culturally specific pathways
from text to relic? While we wish to keep this call for papers as open as possible, we are especially
interested in papers that offer historical, ethnographic, archaeological, and/or material cultural analyses of
particular texts and their material environments.
Submission instructions:
Please send a short proposal (a title plus an abstract of circa 200 words), and a brief bio-note
(including your contact details) to jeremy.stolow@concordia.ca. All submissions received by 1 January
2009 are assured full consideration.
About the Journal:
Postscripts is a new, fully refereed journal devoted to the academic study of scripture around the globe.
The study of sacred texts has historically been a highly technical, specialized and elite practice, held in
preserve by religious authorities and professional scholars. As important as this technical and specialized
work is, it represents only a small proportion of the rich panoply of engagements with texts that are
foundational in the lives of individuals and communities around the world -- texts that travel under the
name of 'scripture' or 'sacred' text. Postscripts takes seriously a broad array of historical and
contemporary engagements with such texts and aims to open up the discussion of sacred texts by crossing
traditional boundaries, bringing different disciplinary tools to the process of analysis, and opening up a
sustained dialogue between and among scholars and others who are interested in religion, textuality,
media and mediation and the contemporary world.
For more information, visit Postscripts at: http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/post/index 􀀁

Call for Papers: "Authority and the Book in Medieval Culture"

>DEADLINE: 1 DEC.
>
>CALL FOR PAPERS
>
>The 26th Annual New England Medieval Studies
>Consortium Graduate Student Conference
>
>Yale University
>April 4, 2009.
>
>Theme: "Authority and the Book in Medieval Culture."
>
>Abstracts from graduate students are now being
>accepted for the 26th Annual New England
>Medieval Studies Consortium Graduate Student
>Conference, the theme of which will be "Authority and
>the Book in Medieval Culture."
>
>The organizers hope that this broad heading will
>elicit proposals for papers from all disciplines of
>Medieval Studies.
>
>Of especial interest are papers dealing with
>palaeography and manuscript studies; hagiography;
>literary studies; art history; history and
>historiography; gender studies; religious studies;
>musicology and medieval liturgical studies; as well as
>biblical exegesis and the relationship between Latin
>and various medieval vernaculars. Further, we look
>forward to receiving proposals that take more
>theoretical approaches to ideas of authority in the
>medieval period. We also hope to have one panel
>devoted to papers that explore different aspect of the
>history of modern Medieval Studies.
>
>Papers are to be no more than twenty minutes in length
>and read in English. Abstracts of no more than 250
>words should be sent by e-mail to
>
>Andrew.Kraebel@Yale.edu or
>SamanthaLily.Katz@Yale.edu.
>
>A hardcopy may be mailed to:
>Andrew Kraebel
>Department of English
>Yale University
>P.O. Box 208302
>New Haven, CT 06520-8302
>
>The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2008.
>
>Graduate students whose abstracts are selected for the
>conference will have the opportunity to submit their
>paper in its entirety for consideration for the Alison
>Goddard Elliott Award.
>
>The conference will also feature a plenary speaker, to
>be announced at a later date.
>

Perugia Geniza exhibit

More from the Italian Geniza here: http://documentiebraici.unipg.it/indexENG.php

Paul Saenger, Rosenbach Lectures

surely relevant to the Jewish book:


The 2008 Rosenbach Lectures in Bibliography

Paul Saenger, The Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois

The Latin Bible as Codex

April 14: "Christian Versification"
April 15: "The Birth of Modern Chapters"
April 17: "The Printed Codex"

http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/lectures/rosenbachs.html

The distinguished scholar of medieval reading practices Paul Saenger
presents three lectures on the development of the medieval and early
printed Bible. Co-editor of the 1999 *The Bible as Book: The First
Printed Editions*, Saenger has also published *Space Between Words:
The Origins of Silent Reading* (1997) and the *Catalogue of the Pre-1500
Western Manuscript Books at the Newberry Library* (1989).

These lectures, free and open to the public, will start at 5:30 PM in
the Rosenwald Gallery, located on the 6th floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich
Library, 3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. Entrance to the Library
is from Locust Walk (just north of the statue of the broken button).

Printing the Talmud exhibition: Yeshiva University

This exhibition sponsored by Yeshiva University has an impressive website:

http://printingthetalmud.org/

Lehmann Workshop at Penn

The official deadline has past, but if you are interested in this, you should contact the Jewish Studies prgram at UPenn to see if space is still available:


The Manfred R. Lehmann Memorial Master Workshop in the History of the Jewish Book
The Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania Library and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, are pleased to announce the eighth annual Manfred R. Lehmann Memorial Master Workshop to be held on May 11-12 (Sunday-Monday), 2008, at CAJS.

The subject of this year's Workshop will be From Manuscript to Print: Reading Colophons, Title Pages, and Other Paratexts. The workshop will be led by Professor Menachem Schmelzer of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Professor Schmelzer, former Director of the JTS Library, is one of the foremost experts on the Jewish book in the world. The two-day program will focus upon close readings of selected colophons in medieval Hebrew manuscripts, and title pages, authors' prefaces, printers' introductions, and approbations in books printed before 1700. Attention will be paid to the language of these paratexts, and to extracting the bibliographical, biographical, historical and textual information contained in them. The workshop will also cover the available bibliographical tools that can help in understanding and interpreting these texts as well as in utilizing them for scholarly purposes.

The workshop is open to professors and independent scholars, professional librarians in the field of Jewish and related studies, and graduate students in Jewish Studies. Attendance at previous workshops is not a prerequisite for admission.

Because much of the Workshop will be devoted to the reading of Hebrew texts like colophons, it is necessary that all participants be able to read non-vocalized Hebrew texts.

For faculty and professionals, tuition is $250. In addition to attendance and all materials for the workshop, the tuition includes two or three nights in a hotel (double-occupancy) for the nights of May 10 and 11 (with the option of May 9), and all meals and refreshments (all kosher) during the course of the workshop.

Graduate students may apply for a full scholarship to the workshop. N.B. To apply for the scholarship, a graduate student should write us giving the details of his or her academic program and a brief statement explaining how the workshop will further his or her academic studies. S/he should also ask a faculty advisor to write us a letter of recommendation on the student's behalf.

Attendance is limited. If you are interested in attending the workshop, please notify us immediately. Full payment and registration form must be received by March 15, 2008. Make checks payable to "Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania." Please address all correspondence to:

Lehmann Workshop
c/o Jewish Studies Program
711 Williams Hall
255 S. 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305
jsp-info@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
215-898-6654

The Manfred R. Lehmann Memorial Master Workshop in the History of the Jewish Book has been made possible by a generous contribution from the Manfred and Anne Lehmann Foundation along with grants from Mr. Albert Friedberg, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, Andrew H. Cohn, Esq. C'66, and the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation.

April 7: Steinschneider Event at JTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Sherry S. Kirschenbaum
(212) 678-8953; shkirschenbaum@jtsa.edu
Library Talk to Celebrate the "Father of Modern Jewish Bibliography"
New York, NY, March 17, 2008­



Without a thorough and scientific bibliographical record of available printed and manuscript materials, research would be impossible.

The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary will honor the centennial of the death of Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907), the father of modern Hebrew bibliography and one of the founders of the "Science of Judaism" (Wissenschaft des Judentums). The event will take place at JTS, 3080 Broadway (at 122nd Street), New York City, and will include presentations by distinguished scholars and the opening of a small exhibition of Steinschneideriana that celebrates the remarkable achievements of this extraordinary scholar.

Steinschneider was one of the most prolific authors in the history of Jewish scholarship, publishing more than 1,400 books and articles on an astonishingly wide array of subjects in several languages. He helped lay the foundation for modern Jewish scholarship to such an extent that it may be said that all contemporary students of Jewish history and culture are his academic progeny. Among his many other scholarly activities, Steinschneider devoted himself to the preparation of library catalogs and subject bibliographies, enabling scholars to publish literary and cultural histories in many languages.

Steinschneider's library came into the possession of The Library in 1907, having been purchased and donated by the great philanthropist Jacob Schiff. His personal correspondence was received in 1934. Although most of Steinschneider's working library was consumed in the JTS Library fire of 1966, his personal correspondence, notes, papers, and annotated publications survived and are included in the exhibition.

Guest speakers will include Dr. Ismar Schorsch, chancellor emeritus of JTS, and Dr. Menahem Schmelzer, Albert B. and Bernice Cohen Professor Emeritus of Medieval Hebrew Literature and Jewish Bibliography at JTS. Following their presentations, discussion will be moderated by Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian at JTS.

Dr. Schorsch also holds the title of Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Professor of Jewish History. His most recent book, Canon Without Closure (March 2007, Aviv Press), is a wide-ranging collection of Torah commentaries written during his tenure as chancellor. In 2004, he published a two-volume collection of the articles and essays he wrote while chancellor titled Polarities in Balance, and in 1995, The Sacred Cluster: The Core Values of Conservative Judaism, a highly acclaimed monograph outlining the seven fundamental tenets of the movement. A top scholar in the field of modern Jewish history, he has addressed the important issue of modern Jewish scholarship as a central factor in the reconstruction of Jewish identity and self–presentation.

A full-time member of the JTS faculty since 1969 and associated with The Library since 1961, Dr. Schmelzer served as librarian from 1965 to 1987. His collected articles and lectures appeared in 2006 under the title Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Medieval Hebrew Poetry. Dr. Schmelzer was also associate division editor of the "Modern Jewish Scholarship" section of Encyclopaedia Judaica.

The talk is open to the community at no charge; reservations are required. For further information and to RSVP, please contact Hector Guzman at (212) 678-8075 or heguzman@jtsa.edu.

Visit the JTS website at www.jtsa.edu.