Partial Calendar of 2010–2011 Events

This calendar includes only events (in English and Hebrew) which are open to the wider public (unless otherwise stated).
For further information: shulamitl@vanleer.org.il

Partial Calendar of 2010–2011 Events

The Second Van Leer International Education Conference: Teachers and Teaching Policies
Monday-Wednesday, November 8-10, 2010
The 2010 conference will focus on teachers, teaching, and the teaching profession. One of the high points of the conference is the international workshop for directors general of Education Ministries from major countries.
The Conference will bring educational practitioners together with scholars from the academic world and intellectuals. Leading international experts will meet with those who make educational policy in Israel. The conference, founded and produced by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, aspires to be – in both content and organization – a leading professional arena for addressing the question of teachers and teaching policy, and a key forum for public discourse about education in Israel. The conference is held in full coordination with the senior echelons of the Ministry of Education. Our partners include "Hakol Hinuch" (the Movement for the Advancement of Education in Israel), the Israel Teachers’ Union, the Secondary-School Teachers’ Organization, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Mandel Institute and the Branco Weiss Institute. To the Conference website

Conference: Marranism – A Paradigm of Jewish Modernity
Tuesday-Wednesday, December 1-2, 2010
The conference is concerned with the question to what extend and in which manner the history of the Marranos has been interpreted as a paradigm of Jewish Modernity. In several outfits, this thesis has occurred since the 19th Century. The focus of the conference therefore lies more on the reinterpretation of the phenomenon than on the historiography of Marranos itself. Speaking of "interpretation" and "reinterpretation" necessarily indicates the shift which is to be analyzed: from phenomenon to discourse. The key question is how the history of the Marranos was used on the one hand as a figure of Jewish self-reflection in secular and modern times, and on the other hand as a means of re-writing und re-organizing Jewish history.

The Twenty Fourth Annual International Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Science, which will focus on The History and Philosophy of Economics
Monday-Wednesday, December 13-15, 2010
The workshop is organized by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the Edelstein Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science at the Hebrew University Jerusalem, the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel-Aviv University, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
One group of sessions will explore the sources of knowledge in economics and in particular the influence of economics on other disciplines in both the natural and social sciences. A second group of sessions will offer new perspectives on two major ideological debates in economics: the dispute between Marx and the capitalists, and the debate between Keynes and the monetarists. Finally, two panels will explore the contemporary development of economics as an academic discipline. The first panel will present personal perspectives on how a center of research excellence in game theory and economic theory came to exist in Israel. The second panel will consider the question of what should be taught in economics.

The Fourth International Conference on the Philosophy of Halakhah: Halakhah as an Event
Tuesday-Wednesday, 28-29 December, 2010
The conference will focus on philosophical analyses of the event of the halakhic entity. Can the knowledge concealed in action and the body of the actor be revealed? What is the gap between the knowledge gathered from theoretical writings and the knowledge gleaned from the halakhic act and the Halakhic event? Does Halakhah change because of the dynamics connected to action rather than due to halakhic theory? What new insights about Halakhah have arisen given the halakhic actor’s awareness about body issues, his senses, and his movements? These studies will be enriched by researchers active in various fields whose sensitivity to the event of the halakhic entity is grounded not only in texts but also incorporates sociological, anthropological, phenomenological, psychological, theatrical, and educational aspects. These studies must demonstrate a strong linkage to the dialogue of philosophy and the philosophy of Halakhah. The Proceedings of the Conference will be published after the customary academic review.

International Conference: Knowledge, Democracy, and Imagination , in Honor of Yaron Ezrahi
Wednesday-Thursday, January 5-6, 2011
In conjunction with the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Leading scholars from Israel and abroad will participate in this conference.
Among the topics to be discussed are: the role of science in the democratic state; the fate of democracy in the 21st century (and thereafter); the function, nature, meaning, and dynamics of the imagination in political systems and the role of "necessary fictions" in all such systems; the Israeli peace movement within the spectrum of modern Israel; the linkages between visual art and the political domain, and between music and politics; and the future of academic research in the social sciences and humanities, and the institutional modes and structures that need to be put in place to safeguard that future.

Conference: Trauma Testimony Discourses (TTD): Genre Patterns and Innovation
Monday-Thursday, February 21-24, 2011
In cooperation with the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Medicine of Tel Aviv University, and NATAL
This conference is unique for several reasons:
- It will explore the issue of trauma testimony from various disciplines such as Psychiatry, Psychology, Medicine, History, Literature, Art and more.
- It is about the discourse of trauma testimony giving and givers including methodological aspects of the research in the field, the issue of memory, the interaction that takes place in the act of trauma testimony giving, among other important issues.
This planned format is unique as far as a review of previous conferences in the field can tell.
It has already evoked great interest among prominent researchers in the world and in Israel who have expressed willingness to take part in the conference.

Colloquium: Book Cultures and Reading Practices in the Religions of the Eastern Mediterranean
Monday-Wednesday, March 14-16, 2011
In collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The colloquium will explore the ancient and medieval book cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean and the religious contexts in which these developed. Recent advances in the study of ancient literacy and papyrology, works on scribal cultures in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and reassessments of the notion of "scriptural movements"have provided historical and theoretical programs for reevaluating the role of books in generating and shaping religious practices, identities, and ideologies. Current studies have also lent detail and credibility to Max Müller’s notion of the "religions of the book"by investigating not only the function of books in the religious imagination, but also the role of books as instruments of power and religious propaganda. The scriptures of ancient Israel, which can be properly understood only in the context of ancient Near Eastern traditions, themselves became (mainly through their translation into Greek) the main engine of what we call "the religions of the book."The international workshop will deal with book cultures and religious literacies in the Eastern Mediterranean, with a particular focus on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

International Conference: Landscape Architecture and Environmental Policy
Wednesday-Thursday, March 23-24, 2011
In collaboration with Leuphana University of Lüneburg
The conference is intended to bring together scholars of various disciplines such as Communication Science, Landscape Architecture, the Study of Literature, Ecology and Political Science. Scholars from various countries including Israel and the neighboring states, USA and Germany are expected to participate. Sessions will be devoted to "Mentalities and Religions,""Environmental policy in the context of sustainable development,"and "Environmental policy and the contribution of landscape architecture at a local level."A special section will deal with the topic of "Films and other arts."

International Conference: Learning to Feel: Emotions beyond Nature vs. Nurture
Sunday-Thursday, April 10-14, 2011
Joint conference with the Centre for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin
Emotions are a burgeoning new field of enquiry, bringing forth exciting studies, many of them still in the making and as yet unpublished. The conference aims to bring together young and more senior researchers and to make a contribution to the creation of new networks between scholarly communities. While collaboration between Israel and Germany in cultural studies has up to now focused on the bi-lateral history of the two countries and placed the emotions of guilt, shame and trauma at the focus of investigation, the aim of the present conference is to investigate emotions in a broader social and scientific context.

To the full Hebrew Calendar of events