Quest 2023
“For whom shall we Say the World has been Created?”
The guest editors of Quest Issues in Contemporary Jewish History – Journal of the Fondazione Cdec are encouraging researchers from the field of Jewish studies, Jewish philosophy and Jewish and Modern Hebrew Literature to submit abstracts on a topic of their choice related to the issue of animals and the environment.
Starting from Cicero’s renowned question “For whom shall we say the world has been created?” (De natura deorum, II, 53, 133), this call for papers aims first and foremost at outlining a status quaestionis about the reception and influence of ecocriticism and animal studies in the field of Jewish studies and Jewish and Modern Hebrew Literature, with a view to re-read and re-interpret ancient as well as modern and contemporary texts in the light of these theories.
It has been often pointed out that the problem of the animal conceals under a thin veneer the problem of the human. In fact scientific research shows how the precise definition of the difference between the human and the animal becomes problematic and challenges the very concept of human-centeredness in the world. Furthermore, if it is true that the problem of the human cannot be separated from the problem of the animal, ecocriticism and ecocritical studies come to testify how we, animals and humans, share this very same planet, a planet that is understood to be in crisis.
Both ecocritical studies and animal studies stand out for their acutely interdisciplinary approach. The editors are seeking to enhance such an approach, persuaded as they are that it will contribute to the opening of new interpretative horizons as far as Jewish Studies and contemporary Hebrew culture are concerned.
Submission
- The deadline for submitting the abstract is 30 October 2021.
- Full title, abstract (150 words) and 5 keywords should be included.
- A cover letter should be also sent in the same email, with: full title of the article and full name of the Author(s), with current affiliation and full address/phone/fax/email details, plus a short biographical note; Author(s)’s statement confirming the agreement to the submission and that the article was not published before and is not currently being considered for publication by any other journal.
- Selection of articles is based on the abstract, and presenters will be notified whether they have been successful by 1 December 2021.
- The full article is due on 1 May 2022 and must be an original submission not presented or published elsewhere.
- Both abstracts and articles should be submitted as a MS Word file by e-mail.
- Research articles should be between 30,000 and 60,000 characters (footnotes and spaces included).
- Each text submitted should be a doc. or .rtf document, written in American English, doubled-space in 12-point Times New Roman; fully justified.
- The Journal number is scheduled for publication in June 2023.
- For full information about the Journal as well as the editorial guidelines see https://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/about-this-journal/
Please send your abstracts by 30 October 2021
to Paolo Bernardini, Professor of Early Modern History, Department of Human Sciences, Innovation and Territory, Insubria University (Como-Varese, Italy), paololuca.bernardini@uninsubria.it
and to Anna Lissa, Associate Professor of Jewish and Hebrew Literature, Université Paris 8, anna.lissa@univ-paris8.fr