Thinking Jewish Modernity in the Feminine: Jewish Women Intellectuals in the 20th and 21st Century

The conference Thinking Jewish Modernity in the Feminine will explore how 20th and 21st century women intellectuals and authors from Else Lasker-Schüler to Helène Cixous more or less explicitly redefined their own identity as Jewish women intellectuals. Aiming at an exploration of how gender and origins defined the lives, and particularly the wartime and/or post-war fates, of these outstanding female figures, the conference focuses on the impact these factors had on their various intellectual journeys and their oeuvre as a whole. It invites international scholars to reflect on the variety of multifaceted and singular philosophical and artistic paths; the literary journeys and autobiographical narratives; and political, historical, and existential writings in which these women reflect on the nexus of Judaism/Jewishness, Femininity/Womanhood and Modernity.