35th Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies - AIS 2019
The Program Committee of the 35th Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies invites scholars conducting research on any aspect of Israel Studies to submit proposals for organized panels and individual papers. Of special interest are proposals relating to the conference theme: Images and Realities: Land of Promise to Startup Nation?
“O, my Kinneret, were you there or did I only dream?” (Rachel Blaustein, 1927)
AIS 2019 takes place at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, situated in a historically significant and multicultural area in the northern periphery of Israel. This is the birthplace and heartland of some of the most renowned ideals of the early Zionist movement, projecting images of national and social redemption set in a rural and agricultural context. More than a century later, the dominant ideals of Israeli society seem to have long moved away from the agricultural and communal vision projected from the shores of the Kinneret, to supposed images of technological prowess and economic dynamism set within a predominantly urban setting.
The theme of this conference offers a chance to reflect on this and many other changing visions and values in Israeli society, from pre-state mandatory Palestine to the present day: often contrasting image-making with concrete reality. It seeks panels and individual papers in the multiple disciplines that constitute the social sciences, arts and humanities: exploring the apparent contrasts and sometimes deep tensions between modernity and tradition; countryside and city; agriculture and industry; communalism and individualism; socialism and capitalism; center and periphery; East and West; democracy and ethnocracy; nationalism and cosmopolitanism; peace-making and militarism; images and realities.