BIAJS Annual Conference 2027

‘Rethinking Pluralism and Peripheries in Jewish Studies’

Call for Proposals

Conference Theme: “Rethinking Pluralism and Peripheries in Jewish Studies”

28th to 30th June, 2027

University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

The annual conference of the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies (BIAJS 2027) seeks to showcase the pluralism and dynamism of Jewish Studies, exploring the subject’s diversities and encouraging intra-disciplinary collaboration, exchange, dissent, and cross-fertilisation of ideas and research. The conference seeks to place particular emphasis first, on who or what is at the apparent centres and margins of Jewish Studies, and second, on the ideological and practical reasons for and impacts of this.

We invite contributions (including panels and co-presentations) from across the fields of Jewish Studies – history, literature, religious studies, archaeology, the arts, linguistics, law, political studies, the social sciences, and more – that reflect critically on self- and on subject-specific positionality. We welcome contributors who feel on the margins of, or minoritized by, the subject/s of Jewish Studies: maybe because they work with or on academic approaches, or communities, or texts, or languages, or cultural expressions and practices on the fringes of Jewish Studies, or maybe because of their personal identity, or geographical, or institutional location.

The conference theme encourages marginal, minority and counter-voices and interrogation of who or what lays claim to normativity.

We welcome papers that explore Jewish traditions in different media, sub-cultures, parts of the world and in different historical periods. Topics can include, but will not be limited to the following:

  • theological, religious, philosophical or ideological areas of Jewish Studies – particularly non-normative areas
  • Jews and Jewish Studies and political engagement, dissent or activism
  • Jews, Jewish Studies and Minoritization
  • Jewish literary and artistic explorations and sub-cultures
  • The changing status of Jewish cultural heritage
  • The status and landscape of Jewish Studies in higher education
  • Topics of antisemitism, Judeophobia, and Jewish racism
  • Nationalism, populism and Jewish Studies
  • Challenges to concepts of crisis and thriving in Jewish history and culture

As usual with BIAJS conferences, some papers on topics unrelated to or only tangentially related to the conference theme are also welcome, including proposals on cutting-edge research in Jewish Studies and research by postgraduate students wishing to present on their doctoral research.

EAJS has generously provided the funding for ten postgraduate bursaries of £200 each. Please indicate in your submission of an abstract that you are a postgraduate and wishing to apply for the bursary.

Confirmed presenters

  • Francesca Stavrakopoulou – Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion, author of God: An Anatomy
  • Yehudis Fletcher – Co-founder and CEO of Nahamu, a think tank countering extremism within the Jewish community, author of Chutzpah
  • Sarah Lightman – artist, writer and Fellow of The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, author of the graphic novel The Book of Sarah
  • Edward Kessler – Founder President of the Woolf Institute and Chair of both The Movement for Progressive Judaism and the Commission on Interfaith Relations

 

We encourage proposals for panels, lightning talks, workshops and co-presentations.

Paper proposals should include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a speaker biography of maximum 100 words.

Panel proposals should include a brief rationale for the panel of no more than 100 words, abstracts of a maximum of 250 words for each paper proposed as part of the panel, and speaker biographies of no more than 100 words each. We advise that panels be mixed in terms of genders, and, where possible, reflect a range of perspectives and of career stages.

NB: Speakers will be allocated 30 minutes for their presentation and questions. Papers should be a maximum of 20 minutes in length followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion.

Postgraduates! We have ten bursaries of £200 available for postgraduate students (in addition to a fee waiver) thanks to funding from EAJS. If you would like to be considered for a bursary, please state this as part of your proposal and send your CV (maximum 2 pages).

Please send paper proposals, panel proposals, and all conference-related correspondence to BIAJSpresident@gmail.com. The deadline for proposals is Tuesday 1 December 2026 at 11:59PM. Registration will open early in the new year after proposals have been assessed and participating speakers notified.

Many thanks to the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS), the Spalding Trust, as well as the Centre for Jewish Studies and Centre for Religion and Public Life of the University of Leeds.