History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism

Call For Papers: For the 2018 meeting we are interested in four areas. 1) Animals and animality in rabbinic Judaism. This invited session engages with Beth Berkowitz's _Animals and Animality in the Babylonian Talmud_ (CUP, forthcoming). 2) Separated by a common scripture? Jewish and Christian exegesis in late antiquity. We seek pairs of scholars presenting brief (likely 10 minute) papers on late antique Jewish (not necessarily rabbinic) and Christian (not necessarily patristic) approaches to the same passages in the Hebrew Bible. Because of the unusual structure of this session, we expect to invite participants, but we welcome proposals as well. Questions about format or proposals can be sent to the unit co-chairs. 3) Emotions in rabbinic literature and culture. What are the emotions? What role do they play in definitions of humanity, understandings of maturation, distinctions between genders, individual well-being, or in the social order? Are contemporary discourses of emotional inner life suitable for understanding the worlds of the rabbis? We seek papers that explore representations or deployment of emotions in rabbinic texts and cognate literatures and social practices. 4) Sexual violence and coercion in ancient Judaism. Developments in the Fall of 2017 have given visibility to the pervasiveness of sexual violence and the gendered deployment of power in contemporary society. We seek presentations that explore the topic of sexual violence and coercion in ancient Jewish contexts. These may include narratives, imagery and thematics in homiletical or liturgical texts, law as constructed within rabbinic or other Jewish communities, relationships to imperial and local authorities or other social orders, and day-to-day relations among Jews or between Jews and others. Papers could explore topics related to ancient notions of “consent” and agency; affective, psychic, and physical kinds of “harm;” legal and cultural histories of “rape;” political coercion and sexual violence.

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