Cfp: Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the Americas; Special Issue of American Jewish History

H-Announce CfP: Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the Americas; Special Issue of American Jewish History

Announcement published by Nick Underwood on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 Type: Call for Papers Date: December 30, 2020 Subject Fields: American History / Studies, Immigration & Migration History / Studies, Jewish History / Studies, Spanish and Portuguese History / Studies, Middle East History / Studies CALL FOR PAPERS: Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the Americas

The editors of American Jewish History are calling for papers for a special issue of the journal on Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the Americas, to be guest edited byDevin Naar, Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies and associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Washington

While the editors will consider papers that address Sephardi immigration to the Americas during the Atlantic and early Republic eras (1654-1820), they are particularly interested in later streams of migration from the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, Syria, Iran and the broader Middle East during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The editors are especially interested in papers that draw on aspects of Sephardi and Mizrahi experiences to disrupt or challenge American Jewish historical narratives—of the United States and the Americas, more broadly. While the terms “Ashkenazi,” “Sephardi,” and “Mizrahi” are problematic and carry their own contested histories, we hope that these terms will provide a fruitful point of departure for authors to explore multiple groups’ histories. We encourage authors to engage or challenge the multiple meanings of these terms.

In light of the current political moment, we especially encourage articles that address race and racism in American Jewish history.

Possible topics include, but are certainly not confined to:

**the social, cultural, political, organizational, religious, and economic experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews;

**studies that consider questions of race, racialization, and whiteness in the historic experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews;

**studies that place Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in dialogue with discourses about Jews of

Citation: Nick Underwood. CfP: Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the Americas; Special Issue of American Jewish History. H-Announce. 12-01-2020. https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/6882552/cfp-sephardi-and-mizrahi-jews-americas-special-issue-american Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Announce

Color;

** studies that place Sephardi and Mizrahi experiences in dialogue with Ashkenazi experiences (particularly when those Ashkenazi experiences have come to be called the "Jewish" experiences in the Americas);

**studies that use material culture to explore the lives and experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews;

**studies that explore gender and sexuality in the historical experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi women and men;

** Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews’ experiences of lack of recognition, inequality, double consciousness, and violence, both within and outside the American Jewish community;

** explorations and critiques of “Ashkenormativity” rooted in historical evidence or sources;

**historical exploration and critiques of the terms “Ashkenazi,” “Sephardi,” and/or “Mizrahi”;

**the historical experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews considered in comparison to other ethnic and racial groups;

**the historical experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in their contacts and relationships with other ethnic and racial groups;

**historical studies of literature, music, art, film, dance, theater by or about Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews;

**analyses of the presence/invisibility of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in representations of American Jewish history in museums, films, and other sites of memory;

**transnational dimensions of historical experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, as well as comparative analyses of their experiences in different contexts;

** historical analyses of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the Americas, including Central and South America and Canada;

**interdisciplinary approaches, which, if historically rooted, may draw upon the methodologies of anthropology, sociology, religious studies, literary studies, post-colonial studies, critical race studies, and other disciplines and approaches;

**contributions from specialists in other fields, outside of American Jewish history, that engage with the experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi studies, whether via American studies, Middle East studies, Arab American studies, Greek American studies, Armenian American studies, Latinx studies, African American studies, Indigenous studies, and other fields of inquiry;

Please send abstracts of not more than 300 words, a short bio, as well as any inquiries to the journal managing editor, Nick Underwood [email protected]( ), by December 30, 2020. Full articles based on accepted abstracts should be 6,000-10,000 words in length and be submitted by June 1, 2021 for peer review. Accepted articles will be published in American Jewish History in 2022.

Contact Info:

Nick Underwood, Managing Editor, American Jewish History

Contact Email: [email protected]