2019 Winners
Diana Sacilowski
The title of Diana's research project is: Strategies of Silence: Representations of Jewish Poles in Polish Literature since the 1980s
Diana writes:
In this project, I examine instances of silence in Polish cultural texts since the eighties that deal with Poland’s Jewish history. Specifically, I analyze how they are used to depict Jewish characters, whether they complicate stereotypes regarding Jewish Poles, and how, and if, they re-signify the conception of Jews in Polish culture. I demonstrate that these silences function as an ethico-political strategy that, while not unproblematic, frames the abstract concept of “the Jew” as a personal subject and expands notions of community and identity in affective ways.
Naomi Taub
The title of Naomi's research project is: Distant Proximities: Whiteness and Worldedness in Contemporary Jewish Literature
Naomi writes:
My project...brings together post-1961 Jewish texts from the United States, South Africa, Israel, and the United Kingdom in order to demonstrate how contemporary Jewish literature de- and re-constructs whiteness through a constellation of multi-layered encounters that transcend national boundaries. It aims to shift the conversation in Jewish literary studies in two ways: first, by replacing the omnipresent question, “Are Jews white?” with the ultimately more productive inquiry, “Under what conditions do Jews understand and/or write themselves as white?”, and second, by re-framing the concept of Jewish whiteness as inherently worlded, shaped by an international network of colonial histories, political commitments, and affective entanglements.