"Thinking About the Politics of Jewish Purpose."
At the workshop, Professor Sutcliffe will discuss a chapter from his current manuscript. You can access the text here. Participants are encouraged to read in advance and come ready to discuss the piece, but feel free to join us no matter how much or how little you manage to prepare. Just pack your lunch and come join us for lively discussion about Jewish purpose!
Adam Sutcliffe is Professor of European History and King's College, London. His research has focused on in the intellectual history of western Europe between approximately 1650 and 1850, and on the history of Jews, Judaism and Jewish/non-Jewish relations in Europe from 1600 to the present. He is particularly interested in the place of Judaism and Jewish themes in Western thought, on which he has published widely. He has a special interest in the Enlightenment thinkers Spinoza, Bayle, Voltaire and Lessing, and in the study of the European Enlightenment more generally. He is also interested in wider questions of religious diversity, toleration and cross-community relations in Europe since the seventeenth century. He has a broad interest in the field of History and Memory, focusing on the uses and significance of the Jewish past, and on the shifting understanding of ideas of empathy, cultural ownership, and collective purpose in historical thought and debate.