Jewish Studies in the Digital Age

An Interactive Panel Discussion and Presentation of Work for Faculty and Graduate Students in Jewish Studies

The ongoing advances in computing power and digital technologies have opened up new modes of understanding and engagement for scholars in all fields. Enhanced computing power has already enabled the collection and analysis of large amounts of data such as pages of Talmud, narrative themes in diverse bodies of literature, historical events, and various forms of quantitative data. For others, digital tools have provided new modes of access to formerly inaccessible documents, sites, and other phenomena - prominent examples include the Shoah Foundation's work to enable its twenty year history in collecting Holocaust testimonies to be searchable and accessible, and the efforts of Jewish museums to catalogue and curate large cultural collections online. 

As the field of Jewish Studies confronts new possibilities for scholarly research, analysis, and communication in the digital age, we take up the challenge of employing digital tools to ask new questions about the Jewish past, present, and future and illuminate connections previously unseen or unimagined.  In this event, we seek to explore how these new methodologies and theories can direct future inquiries in Jewish Studies and ask if Jewish Studies has something unique to bring to the Digital Humanities.