Diaspora Inter-Crossings Speaker Series

March 11, 2020 12:30–1:30pm
Rankin Family Pavilion, Room 214

Strategies of Sustainability of Diaspora Communities:
Take the Jewish Graeco-Roman Diaspora, for Example

Dr. Jack Lightstone
Brock University

ABSTRACT

In the field of Diaspora Studies, theoretical paradigms have often been based on the historical experience of Jews living outside of their homeland in the ancient, medieval and modern eras. While almost every description of the “Jewish Diaspora” commences with an account of the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century BCE. The first Jewish Diaspora communities for which we have substantial evidence are those that ringed the Mediterranean in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods. And yet, many scholars of Diaspora Studies all but ignore the evidence for these communities or deal superficially with it. This presentation aims to survey the principal dominant cultural and social patterns of these communities and asks how these patterns may have contributed to these communities’ sustainability in a diaspora setting. It is hoped that such a survey will prove valuable to theorizing diasporas.

All welcome. Refreshments sponsored by Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures (MLLC).

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Irene M.F. Blayer, Lissa Paul, Cristina Santos and Dawn Zinga
Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences