Jewish Studies at King’s College London is an interdisciplinary network of scholars and research students engaging with Jewish religion, culture and history across time and in relation to current questions and debates. It is anchored in three departments: History; Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies (SPLAS); and Theology & Religious Studies (TRS). Teaching and research draw on a wide range of approaches – e.g. from anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, literary studies, religious studies and sociology – to explore Jewish life in Christian, Muslim and secular contexts from antiquity to the present moment. Scholars and students also benefit from cooperation with colleagues at Leo Baeck College and at the London School of Jewish Studies.
Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, Sephardic literature and culture across time, the worlds of early modern and modern European Jews, and questions of contemporary Jewish society are particularly well represented through modules and among a large group of PhD students. Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim relations, questions of Jewish life in the contexts of secularism and colonialism, and Jewish responses to antisemitism play a critical role in teaching and research. A particular methodological interest is the development of Digital Humanities approaches for Jewish Studies.
Jewish Studies at King’s is a lively place of academic interaction and exchange locally and internationally. The centre is involved with the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Open University of Israel in organising for MA and PhD students an International Winter School in Jewish Studies (Athens 2019, Prague 2020, Madrid 2022). It also offers reading groups, a research seminar, and the annual Maccabaean Lecture, and it regularly organises international workshops and conferences (recently Sephardi Thought and Modernity with the University of Calgary, and Foreign Nations in the Prophets with UCL).
You can find out more about Jewish Studies at King’s College London here.