What’s On

Virtual Meeting

The Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS) Winter Meeting

5 – 7 January 2021

The Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS) is a learned society, based in the British Isles, of professional scholars and others committed to the study of the Old Testament.

In light of ongoing coronavirus restrictions and uncertainties regarding the possibility of meeting physically in January, the Committee of the Society for Old Testament Study has approved a recommendation from its Programme Sub-Committee that the Winter Meeting, scheduled for January 5-7 in Durham, be now held fully online.

Find out more here: https://www.sots.ac.uk/

Virtual Public Event

Evenings with an Author: Rachel Mesch

12 January 2021, 18:30 GMT

American Library in Paris

Please join us for an evening with Dr. Rachel Mesch as she introduces her book, Before Trans: Three Gender Stories in Nineteenth-Century France.

Before Trans examines the lives and writings of Jane Dieulafoy (1850–1916), Rachilde (1860–1953), and Marc de Montifaud (1845–1912), three French writers whose gender expression did not conform to nineteenth-century notions of femininity. Dieulafoy, Rachilde, and Montifaud established themselves as fixtures in the literary world of fin-de-siècle Paris at the same time as French writers, scientists, and doctors were becoming increasingly fascinated with sexuality and sexual difference. Even so, the concept of gender identity as separate from sexual identity did not yet exist. Before Trans explores these three figures’ lifelong efforts to articulate a sense of selfhood that did not precisely align with the conventional gender roles of their day.

Find out more and register to attend here: https://americanlibraryinparis.org/event/evenings-with-an-author-rachel-mesch/

Webinar

Border Jumping and Migration Control in Southern Africa

13 January 2021, 14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET

Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute

Join us for the next MPC Webinar on migration in Southern Africa.

For customers in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, use discount code CSV30FM for a 30% discount.

Find out more and register to attend here: https://www.eui.eu/events/detail?eventid=535268

Virtual Book Launch

Indonesians and Their Arab World

29 January 2021, 13:00 GMT / 14:00 CET

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Freiburg

The book will be presented and discussed by:

Mirjam Lücking (Postdoctoral Fellow, Martin Buber Society, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Judith Schlehe (Director of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Freiburg)
Jürgen Rüland (Emeritus Professor in International Relations, Department of Political Science, University of Freiburg)
Hew Wai Weng (Research Fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)

After brief comments by the speakers, there will be time for further discussion.

The book emerged from a project of the Freiburg Southeast Asian Studies Program “Grounding Area Studies in Social Practice.” It explores how contemporary Indonesians understand their relationship to the Arab world against the backdrop of claims of an “Arabization” of Indonesian Islamic traditions. First-hand accounts from labor migrants and Mecca pilgrims show how their references to the Arab World and their physical and social mobility are guided.

Find out more and how to attend here: https://www.southeastasianstudies.uni-freiburg.de/invitation-virtual-book-launch

Author Interview & Q&A

A Mortuary of Books

28 February 2021, Time TBC

Jewish Book Week

In March 1946 the American Military Government for Germany established the Offenbach Archival Depot near Frankfurt to store, identify, and restore the huge quantities of Nazi-looted books, archival material, and ritual objects that Army members had found hidden in German caches. These items bore testimony to the cultural genocide that accompanied the Nazis’ systematic acts of mass murder. The depot built a short-lived lieu de memoire—a “mortuary of books,” as the later renowned historian Lucy Dawidowicz called it—with over three million books of Jewish origin coming from nineteen different European countries awaiting restitution.
A Mortuary of Books tells the miraculous story of the many Jewish organizations and individuals who, after the war, sought to recover this looted cultural property and return the millions of treasured objects to their rightful owners.