EVENT PODCAST:

This conference addresses the complexity of the Ghetto of Venice at 500, both as a concrete space and as a global metaphor – tracing its refraction across space and time. We bring together representations of the ghetto in art, literature, and photography while embracing the possibilities of digital methodologies. By conceiving of the ghetto as a “memory space that travels” rather than as a static museal site we open up the constellation of representations in which the Ghetto of Venice is situated in the 21st century.

Program:

12:15-1:00 PM – Opening Remarks: by Dean Tyler Stovall presented by Professor Murray Baumgarten

“The Venice Ghetto at 500: Situating the Conversation”

1:00-1:30 PM – Skype conversation with Marjorie Agosín

Questions and Answers. Closing with Poetry Reading
Katie Trostel (Ph.D. Candidate in Literature, University of California Santa Cruz)

1:30-1:45 PM – Coffee Break

1:45-3:15 PM – Panel #1: “The Ghetto as Theater”

Dr. Ariane Helou (University of California, Santa Cruz)
“Voice and Theatricality in Leone de’ Sommi’s Dialoghi.”

Dr. Samuel Arkin (Lecturer in Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz)
“Hath not a Jew a home? Shylock in Venice, Venice in Shylock?”

Respondent: Professor Emeritus Harry Berger, Jr. (Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz)

3:15-3:30 PM – Coffee Break

3:30-5:00 PM – Panel #2: “Mapping Liminal Jewish Space”

Amanda Sharick (Ph.D. candidate in Literature, University of California, Riverside)
“’Beating Vainly at Closed Doors’: Tracing and Transposing the Recurring Ghetto in the Works of Lady Katie Magnus, Amy Levy and Israel Zangwill.”

Professor Alma Heckman (Professor of History and Jewish Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz)
“Porosity and Transgression: Modern Understandings of the Moroccan Mellah and Jews Apart.”

Respondent: Francesco Spagnolo (Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley)

5:00-5:15 PM – Break

5:15-6:30 PM – Round Table Discussion “The Venice Ghetto at 500”: Moderated by Professor Murray Baumgarten

Dr. Rachel Deblinger (CLIR Post Doctoral Fellow and Digital Humanities Specialist, University of California, Santa Cruz)
Professor Bruce Thompson (Jewish Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz)
Professor Emeritus Peter Kenez (History, University of California, Santa Cruz)
Professor Nathaniel Deutsch (History, University of California, Santa Cruz)

6:30 PM – Reception to follow

EVENT PHOTOS:

If you have trouble viewing above images, you may view this album directly on Flickr.

Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, the Literature Department, and the Siegfried B. and Elisabeth Mignon Puknat Literary Studies Endowment