CRPL Research Day on Diaspora, Diaspora Studies, Antiquity and Modernity

An interactive research day/workshop with two Early Career Researchers, Dr Alexiana Fry & Dr Rivkah Gillian Glass. Part 1 (10.00-13.00) - SR Worsley 9.59 and Part 2 (13.00-17.00) - Worsley SR 8.49

This will be of interest to anyone who wants to find out more about interdisciplinary and collaborative research incorporating history and/or the study of religion.
                       
Alexiana Fry is Postdoctoral Researcher for the project "Divergent Views of Diaspora in Ancient Judaism" at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. This project has her focusing on modern frameworks of diaspora and religiosity within specific books of the Bible. She will be presenting on diaspora paradigms with particular reference to the book of Esther (and some reference also to the book of Ezekiel). Alexiana is exploring the role of women's bodies in this literature and how depictions of gender and the body impart attitudes about diaspora identity. Alexiana's book Trauma Talks in the Hebrew Bible: Speech Act Theory and Trauma Hermeneutics was recently published with Lexington Press. Her PhD research (conducted at the University of Stellenbosch) focused on the book of Judges through the lens of trauma, gender, and migration.
 
Gillian Glass is Postdoctoral Researcher on the project "An Intersectional Analysis of Ancient Jewish Travel Narratives" at Aarhus University in Denmark. During her studies and research in Classics and Religious Studies, Gillian has lived in five cities in three languages, and travelled to a dozen countries on four continents. These experiences inform her current work, as Gillian’s research considers the way that travel and movement act as real and metaphorical ways of marking boundaries, connecting communities, and transforming identity. All three of these concepts—boundaries, community, and identity—are at stake in Gillian’s presentation on Aseneth. This 1st century BCE Greco-Jewish novella tells the story of how Aseneth, an Egyptian princess, falls in love with Joseph, son of Jacob, meets an angel, and becomes City of Refuge, a mythic mother-city of the Hebrews. For all that, it is also an enchanting love story and Aseneth is also a radical (re)imagining of what it means to (re)create homeland when living in diaspora. The provisional title for Gillian's presentation is, "A City of Refuge in Foreign Territory: How Aseneth Recreates Homeland in Diaspora."

This event is organised by the Centre for Religion and Public Life and open to all.

Please send expressions of interest in attending to Johanna Stiebert (j.stiebert@leeds.ac.uk), to help with keeping a tab on numbers.