Call for Papers: Italian Jewish Identities

CALL FOR PAPERS: Italian Jewish Identities

Monique R. Balbuena & Federica Francesconi (eds.)

Journal of Jewish Identities, vol. x, issue x 
 
Submission deadline: July 30, 2013
 
CALL FOR PAPERS:

The area comprising what is now modern Italy is the only Western European region where Jews have lived permanently since antiquity. Dating back to the medieval period, Italian, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi Jews have lived in close proximity to each other and integrated with minimal friction. They have mastered a variety of languages, practiced several minhagim, and privileged multiple cultural goals, social practices, and ethical ambitions. Italian Jewry epitomizes the cosmopolitanism, multi-ethnicity, and variety within Judaism and Jewish communities throughout the ages. The Italian Jewish diaspora has been profoundly connected to the identity, history and culture of the surrounding non-Jewish majority in spite of local expulsions, ghettoization, and--turning to the modern era--Fascist-Nazi persecutions. The Italian Jewish experience probes issues of religious identity, acculturation and legal integration, social proximity, language change, ethnicity, and gender, and offers a unique opportunity to explore the complexities of past and contemporary Jewish identities.

This special issue of the Journal of Jewish Identities will focus on representations of Jewishness and Jewish identity in Italy taking into account dynamics of acculturation and seclusion, marginalization and rapprochement. We especially welcome comparative and interdisciplinary contributions that explore multiple areas of Italian-Jewish studies, including: social and cultural life in the medieval, pre-modern and modern periods; Hebrew and Italian poetry throughout the ages; literature by or relating to Italian Jews; cinema; translation; ceremonial art and artists; architecture; and relations with the Church. Also much encouraged are essays that address intra-Jewish difference, multilingualism and use of Jewish languages, Jewish and national identities, use of adopted genres, transnational experiences, and representations of the Holocaust. We invite submissions from any discipline within the Humanities and Social Sciences.

 
 SUBMISSIONS

Papers should be sent electronically to guest editor Monique R. Balbuena at [email protected] or as Word e-mail attachments, indicating “Journal of Jewish Identities: Call for Papers” in the subject line. Manuscripts should be prepared using the Chicago Manual of Style. The preferred length for article manuscripts is 7,000 – 10,000 words. Manuscripts will be reviewed following the Journal’s standard process. Please include an abstract of no more than 150 words and a biographical note. All articles are anonymously reviewed. Submissions must be in American English and are considered for publication on the understanding that the author(s) offer the Journal of Jewish Identities the exclusive option to publish, and that the paper is not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. It is the responsibility of the author to obtain permission for using any previously published material. Accepted manuscripts become the permanent property of the journal. Authors may, of course, use the article elsewhere after publication without prior permission from the Journal of Jewish Identities, provided that acknowledgement is given to the Journal as original source of publication, and that the Journal is notified so that our records show that its use is properly authorized.  

BOOK REVIEWS AND REVIEW ESSAYS 
Individuals interested in writing book reviews (750-1,000 words) of individual works of recent scholarship on the subject or longer review essays (3,000 words) on multiple works should contact the book review editor, Avinoam Patt ([email protected]), to propose specific titles. The editorial board of the Journal of Jewish Identities in turn evaluates these proposals for appropriateness. For this issue we especially welcome reviews on books treating Italian-Jewish themes.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL
The Journal of Jewish Identities is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed forum for contesting ideas and debates concerning the formations of, and transformations in, Jewish identities in its various aspects, layers, and manifestations. The aim of this journal is to encourage the development of theory and practice in a wider spread of disciplinary approaches; to promote conceptual innovation and to provide a venue for the entry of new perspectives. Submissions are invited from all fields in the Humanities and Social Sciences and from the full range of methodologies. Diverse theoretical and philosophical approaches and methodologies, interdisciplinary research studies, as well as instructive case studies are particularly welcome. The Journal publishes empirical and theoretical articles, documents, an occasional debate section, as well as review essays and book reviews. The Journal of Jewish Identities is published twice a year.