International Research Training Group: Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond

The DFG-funded International Research Training Group (IRTG) “Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond,” a unique cooperation between Leipzig University (LU), the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow (DI), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), will commence its work in Leipzig from September 2024. The interdisciplinary program brings together expertise in modern European and Jewish history, German and Slavic literary studies, philosophy, cultural studies, folklore and performance studies, and art history. Researchers of all nationalities are welcome to apply for Doctoral and Postdoctoral Researcher positions in Leipzig and Jerusalem.

The IRTG is based in the idea that Jewish history can be reconstructed, narrated, and commemorated in a substantial and innovative fashion through the analysis of its world of objects. This includes objects that have been lost, imagined, longed for, or that left a recognizable void due to the cataclysms of the twentieth century. The polysemous quality of the English term “belonging(s),” which can mean both “being affiliated to a specific context” and “being owned,” serves as a framework for the IRTG’s exploration of individual and collective notions of the relationship between people and objects. The IRTG aims to scrutinize objects of Jewish provenance, as well as those that have proven meaningful to a specific Jewish community for cultural, religious, or economic reasons, among others.

While understanding the Holocaust as the center of gravity for the topic, the IRTG will delve into the material worlds of the late nineteenth century and reach forward into the present, seeking new tools to offer nuanced insights into the diverse European Jewish worlds and their entanglements with their non-Jewish surroundings. The shift of the centers of Jewish life in the twentieth century from Europe to the Americas and Palestine/Israel will likewise be taken into account.

Current Opportunities

Doctoral Researcher (f/m/d) for the DFG IRTG 2899/1 »Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond«
Dubnow Institute, Leipzig

4 doctoral researchers (f/m/d) for DFG IRTG 2899/1 “Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond”
Leipzig University

Postdoctoral researcher (f/m/d) for DFG IRTG 2899/1 “Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond”
Leipzig University

International Research Training Group: "Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond"
Doctoral Fellowship Program
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

International Research Training Group: "Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond"
Post-Doctoral Fellowship
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem