CALL FOR PAPERS BIBLIOGRAPHY AND THE STUDY OF CULTURAL TRANSFER A MORITZ-STEINSCHNEIDER CENTENNARY CELEBRATION
STAATSBIBLIOTHEK BERLIN, 20-22 NOVEMBER 2007 Moritz (Moshe) Steinschneider (1816-1907) was the first scholar who, qua accomplished bibliographer, investigated systematically the multiple processes of cultural transfer that created the intellectual basis of modern Western civilization. While Steinschneider devoted the greater part of his energy to Jewish literary history, he regarded it as an element in the integrated history of our European-Middle Eastern civilization. Steinschneider, indeed, was interested above all in the continuity of the transmission, study and further elaboration of ideas and conceptions that emerged in Ancient Greece and continued to thrive in Greek, Syriac, Pahlavi, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin, until they were absorbed into various national languages. Steinschneider's bibliographical tools and literary histories laid the ground to the study of the processes of cultural transfer that took place around the Mediterranean during some two millennia. A Steinschneider Centennial Conference, to be held on 20-22 November 2007 at the Statsbibliothek in Berlin, will mark the hundredth anniversary of Steinschneider's death. Its decidedly non-hagiographic purpose is to celebrate the man and the scholar, discuss in their contexts his monumental contributions to the study of the history of civilization, and, last but not least, reflect on the future of the kind of studies begun by Steinschneider. The underlying conviction guiding the planning of the conference is that Steinschneider should be viewed as the historian of a single if multifaceted diachronic unit the intellectual tradition that began in Greece, was carried forward in various centres in Late Antiquity and in the Arab empires, from whence it passed to the West. By avoiding any kind of ethnocentrism, especially euro-centrism, Steinschneider was well ahead of his times. The conference will consist of two parts: I. Steinschneider and his times. This part will be devoted to scholarly investigations of Steinschneider's work with the particular aim of situating it within its multiple historical contexts. The number of possible themes is practically endless: What were Steinschneider's objectives, motivations, and presuppositions? How does his work relate to the Wissenschaft des Judentums and to the religious movements in 19th-century Judaism? How is it connected to the academic disciplines of his time (philology, "Orientalistik," history, codicology, etc.)? Did Steinschneider develop a Weltanschauung of his own? To what networks did he belong? How was he received in different quarters during his lifetime and during the 20th century? What were his positive contributions to each of the very numerous disciplines to which he devoted his attention? What were his relationships to the institutionalized Jewish community in Berlin? What motivated his involvement with "popular education"? And many more. Although Steinschneider will be the focus of this part of the conference, the treatment should by no means become hagiographic: rather, speakers will be expected to approach their topics critically. II. Bibliography and the history of ideas in the 21st century. The second part of the conference will focus upon bibliography and the history of ideas in the 21st century. Using Steinschneider's bibliographies today, we are constantly confronted with questions such as: what are the place and role of comprehensive surveys or bibliographies of knowledge transfer in our own digitized age? Can the bibliographer be replaced by the computer, so that works of the kind produced by Steinschneider are superseded by digitized databases? Is there a need for a trusted "gate keeper" evaluating and selecting information which becomes ever more accessible through the Internet? How should we plan future bibliographies? Proposals of papers (2-3 pages) in English (preferably) or German should be submitted simultaneously to Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt [EMAIL PROTECTED], Rachel Heuberger [EMAIL PROTECTED], and Gad Freudenthal [EMAIL PROTECTED] Deadline for submissions: 15 May 2006. It is hoped that the travel and accommodation expenses of participants whose papers will be selected can be paid by the conveners. ------------------------------ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
