Monsters and Monstrosity in Jewish History. From the Middle Ages to Modernity

Description

Over the centuries, Jews have, with tantalizing ubiquity, invoked images of monsters in their texts, art, and folktales. These images served Jewish authors and artists to push back against their own identification as monstrous or diabolical, and to tackle concerns about religious persecution, assimilation and acculturation, gender and sexuality, science and technology and the rise of antisemitism. The collected volume Monsters and Monstrosity in Jewish History brings together, for the very first time, scholars working within a variety of disciplines, and on a wide range of periods and spaces, to unravel the history of these images, and to pinpoint their political, cultural and religious significance.

Speakers

Dr François Guesnet - Reader in Modern Jewish History, UCL

Dr Sophie Page - Senior Lecturer, UCL History

Professor David Ruderman (chair) - Professor of Modern Jewish History, University of Pennsylvania

Dr Iris Idelson-Shein - Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow, Goethe University