Purity in the Middle Ages Workshop
Purity and its antithesis, pollution, were dominant cultural themes in Christian, Muslim, and Jewish societies from Late Antiquity to the Central Middle Ages (circa 4th-13th centuries). They were essential elements in issues of moral conduct, law, theology, liturgy, statecraft, and environment; moreover, they were ways of articulating reality, expressing religious and social aspirations, and of drawing increasingly more subtle conceptual borders between social categories and groups. The Israel Institute for Advanced Studies research group dedicated to studying “Purity and Pollution” during the 2021-2022 academic year is therefore holding a collaborative workshop with the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Theology and Nanovic Center for European Studies, dedicated to this subject, in March 2022.
Its aim is to bring together the scholars at both institutions who are working on this theme, as well as to provide an opportunity to a small number of pre-selected, advanced graduate students to attend the second day of the workshop, to be held at the IIAS on March 8, 2022, and to participate in it. Faculty participants include, from the IIAS, Jennifer Davis (Catholic University of America); Eric Fournier (West Chester University); Yaniv Fox (Bar-Ilan University); Angela Kinney (University of Vienna); Deborah Tor (University of Notre Dame); and Daniella Talmon-Heller (Ben-Gurion University). Participants from the University of Notre Dame include Jeremy Brown; Nina Glibetic; Mary Keys; Hildegund Müller; Gabriel Radle; and Alexis Torrance.
This workshop is funded by the Crown-Minow Endowment for Jewish Studies and the Kurt and Tessye Simon Endowment for Excellence for Jewish Studies of the Department of Theology, and a grant from the Nanovic Center for European Studies, of the University of Notre Dame; and co-hosted by the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies and the University of Notre Dame Jerusalem Global Gateway.
University of Notre Dame full workshop
