Jews and Black Theory: Conceptualizing Otherness in the Twenty-First Century

Jews and Black Theory: Conceptualizing Otherness in the Twenty-First Century | A Conference

Conveners: Terrence L. Johnson and Shaul Magid
Harvard University

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.	Welcome, Breakfast,   and Opening Remarks	Terrence L. Johnson, Shaul Magid, Harvard Divinity School
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.	Keynote Lecture	Violence and Physics (Notes on Genocide) Fred Moten, NYU Introduction: Terrence L. Johnson, Harvard Divinity School
11:15 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.	Panel I: Literature, History and Race: Thinking with and about Blackness and Jewishness Chair: Terrence L. Johnson, Harvard Divinity School	Occult Instabilities; or Israel-Palestine and the Black Study of Religion J. Kameron Carter, UC-Irvine  Genet and the Judeo-Christian: Race, Religion and Representation in Prisoner of Love Kirsten Collins (Ph.D. candidate), University of Chicago The Dead are not Safe: Walter Benjamin, Saidiya Hartman, and the Allegories of Time Joseph Winters II, Duke University A Tale of Two Revisions: The Color Line and the Jewish Problem, From Galicia to Dougherty County Benjamin Ratskoff, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.	LUNCH
2:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.	PANEL II: Jewishness, Blackness, and the Question of Difference Chair: Janet Gyatso, Harvard Divinity School	Politics Beyond Citizenship: Blackness and Jewishness (in Contemporary Germany) Now Damani Partridge, University of Michigan Coercive Feelings: Entitlement and Jewish Subjecthood Tsiona Lida (Ph.D. candidate), Harvard University
4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.	PANEL III: Blackness, Whiteness, and Double Consciousness Chair: Shaul Magid, Harvard Divinity School	Rereading DuBois for the Question of Jewish Whiteness? Elissa Sampson, Cornell University Reading Fred Moten in Jewish Jonathan Boyarin, Cornell University Jew Theory Saul Zaritt, Harvard University
5:45 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.	PANEL IV: The Black-Jewish Alliance: Its History, Demise, and Possible Futures Chair: Ginna Green, Uprise	Marc Dollinger, San Francisco State University Aryeh Cohen, American Jewish University Becca Leviss, Harvard Divinity School Rabbi Shais Rishon, Brooklyn
7:00 p.m.	Dinner and Discussion of Possible Future Projects

9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.	Welcome (coffee)
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.	Keynote Lecture	“I’m not White, I’m Jewish!” Ashkenazi Jews and the Complexities of Race in America Cheryl Greenberg, Trinity College Introduction: Shaul Magid, Harvard Divinity School
11:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.	Coffee Break
11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.	Panel V: Race, Theory and Religion: Jews, Blacks, and the Judeo-Christian Chair: Derek Penslar, Harvard University	‘Dark Testament’: Fugitive Faith and the Possibility of Freedom in Black Zion  Terrence L. Johnson, Harvard Divinity School Literary Black and Jews: Again, But Differently Jacques Berlinerblau, Georgetown University Blacks, Jews and Arabs: Dialogue in the Shadow of the Germans Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College
12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.	LUNCH
1:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.	PANEL VI: Ritual, Culture, and Post-War Jewish Identities Chair: Jacob Olupona, Harvard Divinity School	A  Little Jewish Mischief:  Reading Operation Shylock with Sylvia Wynter Sarah Hammerschlag, University of Chicago Divinity School   Michael Twitty’s African American Seder and the Creation of a Black Jewish Culinary Ritual Samira Mehta, University of Colorado, Boulder Ceremonies Never Lost and Wynter’s Others: Africa, Islam, Arabs, Jews and the Paradoxical Limits of Sylvia Wynter’s Project Oludamini Ogunnaike, University of Virginia
3:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.	PANEL VII: Challenges of Blackness, Jewishness, and Diaspora Chair: Steven Harris, Harvard University	‘Little Family Quarrels’: The (Re)Education of Kyrie Irving Judah Isseroff, Washington University Judeopessimism: The Cattle Car in Times Square Noah Krasman (M.A.), Haifa University How Does G*d Hit a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick?: Applying Womanist Wisdom to the Discursive Dilemmas for Jews and Black Theory Jennifer Leath, Queen’s University
5:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.	Final Discussion