Graduate Student Call for Papers: Thinking Beyond Boundaries in Jewish Studies

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The Jewish Studies Graduate Student Association at Indiana University

Call for Papers: Thinking Beyond Boundaries in Jewish Studies

Conference Date: February 5th and 6th, 2026, in-person

Location: The Bloomington campus of Indiana University.

Application Deadline: November 7, 2025

The Jewish Studies Graduate Student Association at Indiana University invites graduate students and advanced undergraduate students to submit presentation proposals for our 14th annual conference, entitled Thinking Beyond Boundaries in Jewish Studies. Through inquiry both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, we aim to explore the diverse and innovative forms of research that are reshaping the bounds of Jewish Studies today. The conference will be held on February 5th and 6th, 2026, in-person on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University.

Proposals are encouraged to engage with any of the following questions: How do boundaries–be they cultural, political, gendered, ethnic, religious, linguistic or geographical–shape Jewish identities across time and place? What questions might the transnational and multicultural field of Jewish Studies pose in order to better understand how such boundaries have been, and continue to be, negotiated within, among and between Jewish and non-Jewish communities? What is diaspora and how do the physical and social boundaries inherent to migratory experiences shape Jewish experiences? We invite exploration of the contrasts, gaps and bridges between normative understandings of Jewishness, Judaism and Jewish Studies that call into question the ways in which boundaries have served to both expand and limit possibilities for imagining Jewish identity, nationality and religion.

Alongside the above themes and questions, we also invite papers that reflect on how our roles as researchers and knowledge producers are deeply entwined with identities inside and outside of our work. In what kinds of ways do our personal and professional identities shape the knowledge that we are producing as early career scholars in Jewish Studies?

The conference is open to all graduate students working in Jewish Studies and adjacent fields. As an interdisciplinary conference, we welcome papers from many fields including but not limited to Anthropology, History, Sociology, Music, Literature, Religion, Folklore, Visual and Performance Art, Political Science, and Media Studies. We encourage advanced undergraduate students with an interest in Jewish Studies to submit an abstract for consideration for a potential panel designated for undergraduate research.

Send an abstract (maximum 300 words), a title for your presentation, and contact information including name, email address, telephone number, and institutional affiliation to jsgsacon@iu.edu by November 7. Participants will be notified of acceptance by December 5. Papers will need to be submitted by January 15 for circulation among faculty respondents.

Financial assistance may be available. Please include any financial concerns about your ability to attend, if applicable. The conference will be in person. Registration and attendance are free

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