The Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies will host a prestigious group of 13 scholars this fall, gathered around the theme “Secularization/Sacralization” and led by Scott Spector, professor of history, German and Judaic studies.
“The Institute Fellows represent an amazing diversity of scholarship and achievement,” said Deborah Dash Moore, director of the Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, which includes the Institute. “Many of them, having achieved renown through their research on topics not related to Judaism, are bringing a rich background to their current interest in Jewish subjects.
“This year’s group includes such distinguished scholars as Michael Lowy and Guy Stroumsa, whose work in intellectual history is unsurpassed, as well as several fellows who bring new areas of expertise to the Frankel Institute, including museum studies scholar Jeffrey Abt and cultural geographer Jessica Dubow.”
Established through a generous financial contribution from the Jean and Samuel Frankel Jewish Heritage Foundation, the Frankel Institute provides annual fellowships for scholars and artists around the world to conduct research on a given theme.
With the goal of advancing Jewish studies globally, it remains the only program of its kind at a public university in the United States. Additionally, the institute offers lectures, symposia, art exhibitions and musical performances to the public.
The 2015-16 Frankel Institute fellows and their fields of research are:
• Jeffrey Abt, Wayne State University, “Religious Ceremonials / Museum Artifacts: Rethinking Jewish Ritual Objects.”
• Efrat Bloom, U-M, “Walter Benjamin’s Secular Prayer.”
• Marc Caplan, New York University, “The Weight of an Epoch: Yiddish Modernism and German Modernity in the Weimar Era.”
• Jessica Dubow, University of Sheffield, “Thinking Outside the City Walls: Philosophy, Geography, and the Radicalism of Judaic Thought.”
• Kirsten Fermaglich, Michigan State University, “A Rosenberg by Any Other Name.”
• Shaul Kelner, Vanderbilt University, “Strategic Sacralization in American Jewish Politics: The Contradictions of Cultural Mobilization in the American Soviet Jewry Movement.”
• Miriamne Krummel, University of Dayton, “The Medieval Postcolonial Jew: In and Out of Time.”
• Michael Lowy, National Center for Scientific Research, “Secularization/Sacralization in Jewish-German Culture: Kafka, Benjamin, Bloch, Fromm.”
• Ariel Mayse, Harvard University, “Expanding the Boundaries of Holiness: Conceptions of the Sacred in Modern Hasidic Spirituality.”
• Eva Mroczek, Indiana University, “The Other David: Between the Tanach and the Palmach.”
• Scott Spector, U-M, “The ‘Secularization Question’: Germans, Jews, and the Historical Understanding of Modernity.”
• Guy Stroumsa, Hebrew University and University of Oxford, “The Secularized Study of the Abrahamic Religions in the Nineteenth Century.”
• Genevieve Zubrzycki, U-M, “Resurrecting the Jew: Philosemitism, Pluralism, and Secularism in Contemporary Poland.”
