You may be interested in the following upcoming public Collegium Lecture in Helsinki at the Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies. The theme of the lecture is very much relevant also to CSTT related research.
“Diaspora Nation; or, What is the Jews?” by Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture and rhetoric, UC Berkeley.
Time: Monday, May 27 at 5 pm (with reception)
Venue: University of Helsinki Main Building, Small Hall (Fabianinkatu 33, 4th floor)
Description:
In this lecture, I will contend that the binary opposition: The Jews is a religion/The Jews is a nation is based on a false dichotomy. It is further flawed by the assumption that nation is tantamount to nation-state such that only the option “religion” constitutes an oppositional position vis-a-vis a Jewish nation state. I will discuss scholarship that proves definitively that many–if not most–early Zionist political thought did not involve the building of a state. The bulk of the lecture will outline the idea of a Diaspora Nation as the once and (possible) future for the continued existence of the Jews.
For more information about the event and the speaker, visit the Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies website.
Workshop: Gender and Religious Identity
There will also be a workshop before the lecture on May 27 organized in honour of the visit by Boyarin. The theme is Gender and Religious Identity, and speakers include Martti Nissinen, Saana Svärd, Outi Lehtipuu, and many others. The workshop is open for all: for more information click here.
The Program of the Workshop:
9.00: Martti Nissinen, HY: The Agency of the Female Prophets of the Hebrew Bible: Independent or Instrumental? Prophetic or Political?
9.30: Saana Svärd, HY: Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East
10.00: Outi Lehtipuu, HY: “No Male and Female”: Gender and the Rhetoric of Recognition in Early Christianity
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00: Susanna Asikainen, HY: Investigating Emphasized Femininities in the Rewritten Biblical Narratives
11.30: Katharina Keim, Lund: Women and Gender in Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer
12.00-13.00: Lunch break
13.00-1530: Religious identity session
13.00: Antti Vanhoja & Nina Nikki, HY: Paulinism and Anti-Paulinism: Cultural Evolutionary Perspectives
13.30: Pekka Lindqvist, ÅA: Confrontations and Exegesis in Early Judaism
14.00-14.30: Coffee break
14.30: Maijastina Kahlos, HY: Pagans, Heretics, or Sorcerers? Labels and Identities in Local Religion in the Fifth Century CE
15.00: Riikka Tuori, HY: Karaite Identity in Early Modern Europe
The cover picture is from the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv – en:Beit Hatefutsot. Exhibit showing “One culture:Many facets. The growth of pluralism in modern jewish spiritual life.” By Sodabottle / Wikimedia Commons.