PaRDeS 30 (2024)
Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies in Germany / Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e.V.

“Through Their Eyes...” – Biographical Research in the Digital Age

Editor: Dr. Björn Siegel (Institute for the History of the German Jews, Germany) Guest-Editor: Prof. Dr. Andrea Sinn (Elon University, USA)

Biographical studies have always been central to the historically working humanities, however, the relevance of biographical research seems to have gained importance throughout the last years, calling for a deeper analytical study as well as a critical re-evaluation of such a newly evolving “biographical turn”. Especially in an increasingly digitalized world, including academia, life stories seem to offer new and candid, but also personal and local lenses through which to examine, understand and present historical narratives, cultural phenomena, or literal productions. Different (auto)biographical sources offer the unique opportunity to see history “through their eyes” and provide authentic and insightful perspectives on the past and the present and can therefore, when viewed critically, serve as valuable historical records.

Such personal insights into the past and present not only enable researchers to reconstruct and preserve different life stories, but offer a unique opportunity to study political, cultural and social networks and spaces, but also to analyze the interwoven feelings, thoughts and beliefs of people who experienced past realities. However, these sources also raise questions about the interests and perspectives of the writer(s), the reliability and subjectivity of the individual, as well as the constructiveness of the related texts and sources. Therefore, biographical research not only represents an interesting tool and promising methodology, but also poses considerable challenges to researchers in the humanities in general, and Jewish Studies in particular.

The challenges are largely connected to phenomena such as (forced) migration, the evolution of diasporas and exiles, the consequences of multilingualism and transnational networks, questions of acculturation and representation, influences of religious principles, social habits or gender relations as well as the effects of changing moral concepts, philosophies, and identities. The worldwide spread of digitization seems to have solved some of these challenges, such as the issues of availability or legibility, but it also leads to new demands and difficulties, when studying biographies.

While these phenomena might be universal, they seem to be inherent in Jewish history and culture, thus, making biographical research in Jewish Studies a complex, but also promising methodology. Therefore, the journal PaRDeS is seeking contributions that explore the potential of the “biographical turn in Jewish Studies” and aims to examine its impact on the study and representation, but also preservation of Jewish history, culture, and religion in the digital age. We welcome contributions from fields including but not limited to history and literature, political and cultural studies, sociology and anthropology, as well as contributions focusing on digital studies as well as archeology, archival studies etc. Potential contributions may focus on any character, locality or time period, related to Jewish life stories.

Potential papers might focus on the following (not exhaustive) topics and questions, pose examples to illustrate the changing settings and/or
- What are the specific challenges to write Jewish biographies/life stories in the digital age?
- How important are biographies in Jewish history, religion and/or philosophy and has it changed to write a biography in an ever more digitized world?
- How can one life story influence the study of Jewish history, culture, and religion and does the function of the individual and/or collective transform in a digital world?
- What kind of benefits does the digital age offer/suggest for the of study of Jewish history, language(s), religion, and/or culture? And, how does it influence the social construction of a life story?
- Is digitization expanding the source base of biographical research and does it change the availability, readability and/or accessibility of sources (e.g. texts and multimedia sources)?
- How does digitization change the materiality of the sources?
- How are Jewish biographies used today, e.g. in academia, memory culture, educational strategies or public debates and did the representation of Jewish life changed by newly developed digital tools?
- How do museums and archives modify their strategies to preserve “Jewish life stories” in the digital age?
- Do digital biographical studies offer new insights and tools to decode and analyze emotions or thoughts, but also trauma or violence?

Proposals for papers (max. 500 words) and a short CV (max. 100 words) should be submitted to the editors, Björn Siegel (bjoern.siegel@igdj-hh.de) and Andrea Sinn (asinn@elon.edu), by January 5, 2024. The candidates will be notified on January 15, 2024. The submission of the finished papers is tentatively scheduled for May 2024. The full article should be 30.000 to 35.000 characters including spaces. All submissions will undergo a blind peer-review process.

PaRDeS is an interdisciplinary journal that ensures its quality through a blind peer review; all articles published in PaRDeS are indexed in Rambi: Index of Articles on Jewish Studies. PaRDeS is published online in open access and in print. Previous issues are available at this link:
https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/solrsearch/index/search/searchtype/series/id/37