10th Enoch Nangeroni Meeting, June 17-21st: Gender & Second Temple Judaism
Chairs: Shayna Sheinfeld (Centre College) and Kathy Ehrensperger (Abraham Geiger Kolleg)
Date: June 17-21, 2018
Place: Rome, Italy
Area of Focus:
While gender is discussed at other conferences and seminars on Second Temple Judaism, it is always as a peripheral topic: a presenter who discusses a text that includes women will usually touch on the subject; likewise, specific portrayals of masculinity may be noted in some texts. Gender as the focus, however, is rare. Our goal in this seminar is to bring into sharp focus the need for a discussion of women in particular and gender in general in light of Second Temple Judaism. Our ancient evidence is generally written and produced by and for men, creating specific challenges to modern interpreters in their quest for historical reconstruction of Second Temple Jewish communities. This seminar will focus on the methodological challenges of considering the ancient evidence and asking questions of gender, and the application of such methodologies to the ancient literary and material evidence.
We expect to have panels covering the following topics: 1) Methodological considerations, 2) Josephus and/or the Hasmonean Dynasty, 3) Material Evidence, 4) so-called Apocyrphal and Pseudepigraphic texts, 5) Dead Sea Scrolls, 6) Philo and/or Wisdom literature; and 7) Early Jesus movement. This seminar will be the first of two seminars on the topic. The second seminar will focus on Gender and Late Antiquity.
For any questions on participation, please do not hesitate to contact the conference chairs, Shayna Sheinfeld (shayna.sheinfeld@centre.edu) and Kathy Ehrensperger (kathy.ehrensperger@gmail.com), or the conference secretary, Joshua Scott (scottjos@umich.edu).