The first installment of the Mellon-Sawyer seminar series, Sites of Translation in the Multilingual Midwest, took place on February 4-5, 2021. The seminar, titled Jewish Multilingualism in the Midwest: Yiddish Translations of Urban Experience, was coordinated by Maya Barzilai (University of Michigan), and brought together scholars of Jewish culture and history, hailing from various Midwestern institutions.
The seminar raised questions regarding the possibilities to study Jewish culture in the Midwest, and how this study might add nuances to existing perceptions of both the Midwest, as an interconnected cultural region, and of American Jewish culture and Yiddish literature. Spotlighting cultural production in the Midwest may shift ideas about cosmopolitanism and immigrant experiences in Jewish life in America, concepts that were hitherto limited primarily to the vantage point of New York’s Jewish communities.
Read more about the event and the fascinating discussions that took place – here.
