CALL FOR PAPERS #BIAJS2026
Space and Place in Jewish Studies
British and Irish Association of Jewish Studies Annual Conference 2026
Birkbeck, University of London | July 2026
“there is no thing that has not its place.” — Pirkei Avot 4:3
For 2026, the theme of the BIAJS annual conference is space and place. Since ancient times, these concepts have been central to Jewish life and thought. Spaces and places can be real or imaginary, micro or macro, shared or separated, boundaried or porous, safe or hostile: the ark, the sukkah, the mikveh, the genizah, the kibbutz, the eruv, the Temple, the concentration camp, the Uganda plan, Babylonian exile, the occupied territories, Eretz Yisrael, di goldene medine, Sepharad, Yiddishland, the heavens and the underworld… From biblical narratives rooted in specific geographies, to sacred architecture and urban neighbourhoods, to diasporic movements and reimagined homelands, Jews have continually negotiated their relationship to space – physical, textual, social, political, and symbolic. Spaces and places are not neutral containers for Jewish life; they shape, reshape and are shaped by Jewish life and practices. How can attention to place and the spatial animate Jewish studies?
We welcome proposals that engage with this theme from any disciplinary, methodological, or chronological perspective. Although BIAJS conferences are always open to panels and papers outside of the main theme, this particular theme allows for many strands of inquiry, including but not limited to:
- Maps and cartographies in Jewish history
- Biblical, Talmudic and Rabbinic constructions of sacred and profane space
- Jewish cosmologies
- Pilgrimage, exile, and homeland
- Ritual spaces
- Space and place in Judaic law and philosophy
- A people without land? Diaspora, exile, transnationalism, rootless cosmopolitans
- A land without people? Zion, settlement, colony, homeland
- Jewish urbanism and spatial segregation (shtetls, ghettos, quarters…)
- The gendering of Jewish space
- Sites of memory and commemoration
- Field sites in Jewish ethnography or Biblical archaeology
- Imagined geographies in literature, film, music and art
- Spaces of leisure and culture (ballrooms, taverns, clubs, cafes…)
- Digital and virtual spaces of Jewish identity
- Mainstream and marginal spaces
- Spaces of antisemitism
The conference takes place in London, a global metropolis with a rich Jewish history, multiple diasporic connections, a wealth of interesting Jewish spaces, and several institutions dedicated to the study of Jewish life and history and of the Holocaust. We will be including opportunities to engage with and visit a number of these spaces as part of the conference.
Submission Guidelines
We welcome proposals for:
- Individual Papers (20 minutes)
- Panels (3–4 papers on a related theme)
- Roundtables, workshops, dialogues, etc
Submissions from scholars from all career stages, especially including early career scholars and PhD students, are encouraged. Traditional panels will include three or four thematically linked presentations, but a range of formats is strongly encouraged: we hope to include panels, lightning rounds, round tables, and writing and pedagogy workshops. We are also open to creative presentations.
Individual paper proposals should be no longer than 250 words, accompanied by a short biography (about 100 words). Panel (or similar) proposals should include a summary of the session (150 words) and abstracts of the papers (max. 250 words), along with short biographies (max 100 words) of the presenters and moderator. Please send your proposals to: BIAJSpresident@gmail.com.
Thanks to the generosity of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) a limited number of travel bursaries(ten bursaries of £250) will be available for graduate students and early-career scholars based at European institutions (including in the UK). If you would like to apply for one of these, please state this as part of your proposal, specify if you have received a travel bursary for a previous BIAJS conference, and send your CV (maximum 2 pages).
The conference will take place on 13-15 July. Birkbeck is in Bloomsbury, central London – for information about getting there see https://www.bbk.ac.uk/maps.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 30 JANUARY 2026 6 pm
For more information, visit https://biajs.co.uk/ or contact us at BIAJSpresident@gmail.com.