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** with apologies for cross posting ** Call for Proposals Austrian Studies 24(2016): Jews and Austrian Culture What it means to be Jewish inAustria is deeply rooted in the past, but also continues to evolve. Althoughconfronted with antisemitism, Austrian Jews ranging from strongly assimilationistto ardently Zionistdrove and supported some of the most well-known ideas and movements of modernculture, whetherthese were aimed at the conservation of tradition or at forginginnovation. Many scholars remain fascinated byJews’ participation in high culture and modernism around the fin-de-siècle: theworks of Arthur Schnitzler, Sigmund Freud, and Stefan Zweig, to name only afew, continue to mark the landscape of international popular culture. And in recent years,commentators have noted a ‘re-invigoration’ or even ‘rebirth’ (Hope Herzog) ofJewish culture in Austria. They draw attention to high-profile authors andcultural figures whose activities often centre around Vienna (Robert Menasse,Robert Schindel, Eva Menasse, Doron Rabinovici, Ruth Beckermann, Matti Bunzl),as well as to institutional renewal that draws upon the cultural history ofAustria’s Jews in new and challenging ways (for example, the renovation of theJewish Museum in Vienna, the Jüdische Kulturwochen, the Jewish Museum in Hohenemsand the Jewish History Institute in St Pölten). Antisemitismpast and present continues to be an emotive and problematic factor in Austrianpublic discourse, as was amply demonstrated by the controversies surroundingthe renaming of the Karl-Lueger-Ring in Vienna as Universitätsring in 2012/13,and the establishment of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Vienna as aninternational documentation and research hub for studies on Jewish persecution,the Holocaust and antisemitism. Recent violent attacks on Jews in France andDenmark have raised awareness in Austria of antisemitism as a Europe-wideproblem, lending increased urgency to discussions within Austria itself. As Austrians engage with their Jewishpast and present, the need for public debate and scholarly discussion of Jewishcultural studies and identity politics continues to grow. In the light of thesedevelopments, Austrian Studies 24(2016) invites proposals for papers dedicated to investigating manifestationsand negotiations of Jewish culture and Jewish difference in the Austriancontext. Although discussions of contemporary Austria are particularly welcome,contributions on under-researched aspects of the rich and varied Jewish past ofthe Habsburg lands from the eighteenth century onwards are also invited.Contributors are encouraged to show their awareness of the shifting boundariesof what is or was considered Jewish (and by whom) at any particular point inAustrian history. Topicscould include: · casestudies of individual works or writers, artists and cultural figures· casestudies of Jewish communities and their cultural interactions · definitionsof ‘Jewish’ and ‘Austrian’ culture – how are we to conceive of the relationshipbetween these two categories? What new questions can we ask to help usunderstand their limitations?· Investigationsof how using Jewish difference as an analytic category (that is, as thedialectical, hierarchical framework that encompasses the relationship betweenthe socially constructed categories of “Jew” and “non-Jew”) help us avoidessentializing our understandings of what is “Jewish” in Austrian culture. Howdoes Jewish difference intersect with other analytic categories such as genderand class to help us understand and interpret the history and culture of Jewsin Austria?· Thepurchase of the past on the present, in particular in post-1945Austria· Memorialization,documentation and public display of Jewish life and culture in Austria beforeand/or after the Holocaust· Comparisonof Austrian and German Jewish culture, history, traditions. Expressions of interest,including a provisional title and a proposal of no more than 300 words shouldbe sent to Deborah Holmes [log in to unmask] and Lisa Silverman [log in to unmask] by 15 May 2015. Thesubmission deadline for articles is 15 November 2015 for publication in autumn2016. Austrian Studies is apeer-reviewed yearbook published in English under the auspices of the ModernHumanities Research Association. It adheres to the MHRA style guidelines(www.mhra.org.uk)