“Sign of the Times: Marking Jewish Identity in the Medieval and Early Modern World” | a Symposium

“Sign of the Times: Marking Jewish Identity in the Medieval and Early Modern World” | a Symposium

Monday, November 18, 2024, 12:00 – 6:00 PM
Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge

This event is co-sponsored by the Jeanette and Ludwig Goldschmidt Bequest for the Benefit of the Center for Jewish Studies, the Committee on Medieval Studies, the Jewish Cultures and Societies Seminar Series and History of the Book Series at the Mahindra Humanities Center, and the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard.

Program:

12:00 | David Stern, Harvard University: Opening Remarks
12:10 | Ann Marie Rasmussen, Duke University
“Wearing or Bearing a Badge: Contextualizing Discriminatory Badges
in the Medieval World of Visual Affiliative Signs”
12:40 | Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“Marking Jewish Obsolescence: The Badge and the History of the Book”
1:10 | Q & A
1:30 | LUNCH BREAK
2:00 | Thomas Rainer, University of Basel
“The Vanished Torah Scroll and the Jewish Coats of Arms. Flags to Represent
Jewish Communities between Zurich and Constance in the 14th and 15th Centuries”
2:30 | Flora Cassen, Washington University in St. Louis
“The Jewish badge in Renaissance Italy: A Mark of Shame and Jewish Resistance Against it”
3:00 | Ann Jones, Smith College & Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania
“A Renaissance Costume Book: Expelling the Jews?”
3:30 | Q & A
4:00 | COFFEE BREAK
4:30 | Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University
Jeffrey Hamburger, Harvard University
Respondents
5:15 | Q & A / Discussion