We are delighted to announce that the Department of Jewish Culture at Saint Petersburg State University and the Department of Israel Heritage at Ariel University will hold a common international conference: The Crimea – Crossroads of Civilizations: History, Literature and Cultural Interaction of Crimean Peoples.

The languages of conference will be English and Russian.

Aims and Scope of the Conference

Supporting the concept of interdisciplinary research, we welcome submissions of abstracts in the following academic fields: history, religious and cultural studies, literary heritage, anthropology and folklore of the Crimean people and ethno-confessional groups (such as Jews, Khazars, Tatars, Greeks, Armenians, Subbotniks) and their cultural interaction.

We especially welcome presentations of papers resulting from the study of archival materials and collections pertaining to these topics. The conference will be mainly focused on themes and aspects related to the Jewish communities of the Crimea (Romaniots, Krymchaks, Karaites and Ashkenazic Jews), who lived on the crossroads of different kinds of cultures: Jewish, Byzantine, Turcic, Greek, Slavic and Ottoman cultures.  Besides these, a number of panels will deal with the history and culture of the other peoples of the Crimean Peninsula.  

Proposed Themes

The History of Jewish communities in the Crimean Peninsula

The Jewish writings and literary genres in the Crimea (exegesis, halakhah, kabbala, philosophy, historiography, poetry etc.)

The research of archives, manuscripts holdings and museum collections

The study of the Crimean epigraphy

Archeology and the historical monuments

The intellectual community leaders, their activity and contribution to the spiritual and social life

Methodological issues in the study of literary texts and documents

Linguistics, translation studies, diglossia, multilingualism

The present state of the Crimean peoples and ethno-confessional groups

The history of the Crimean peoples during WWII; Holocaust studies.

Proposals on these and other themes will be welcomed.

Requirements for Participation in the Conference

The application should include following information:

1. A paper title 
2. An abstract of between 200-250 words.

3. A short CV (no more than 120 words)
4. Contact information: name, e-mail address, telephone number.

Proposals are due by March 31, 2016.

Final decision will be made no later than end-April 2016.

Conference Publications

Selected papers will be published as a thematic collection of articles in English and Russian by the Saint Petersburg State University and the Ariel University. The remaining papers will be published in conference proceedings, and in the peer reviewed journals Jewish Speech orJudaica Petropolitana in Russian, English or Hebrew.  

The Schedule of the Conference

14.06.16 – Registration, opening session at the St Petersburg State University, Mendeleevskaya liniya str. 5

15.06 – Conference sessions

16.06 – Conference sessions, closing session

During the days of the conference, sightseeing tours will organized for its participants as well as a visit of the Manuscript department of the National Library of Russia.