Landscapes of Print: Jews, Arabs, and Judeo-Arabic in Colonial North Africa – Noam Sienna

Arabness and Jewishness are sometimes understood to be identities at odds, or even mutually exclusive, but there are many contexts in which they have overlapped. This talk explores one such time and place: the attempt in nineteenth-century North Africa to create a modern “Arab Jewish” or “Judeo-Arabic” reading public. Dr. Sienna will investigate the development […]

Crossroads of Cultures: The Jezreel Valley in the Bronze and Iron Ages – Karen Covello-Paran

The Jezreel Valley is Israel’s largest and most fertile valley.  Strategically located in Northern Israel, this region played a pivotal role in the social, cultural, and economic developments of major political entities during the second and first millennia BCE. In this lecture, we will explore Canaanite urban culture, Egyptian imperial rule, and the Kingdom of […]

‘Mobile internet is worse than the internet; it can destroy our community’ Old Order Amish and Ultra-Orthodox women’s responses to cellphone and smartphone use

This research explores exposure patterns and perceptions of cellphone and smartphone use among Amish and ultra-Orthodox Jewish women, while examining symbolic meanings these non-users might attribute to these devices. Triangulation of participant observations, interviews, and a survey, serve to demonstrate that although these populations differ in their cellphone use (the Amish mostly don’t use them […]