The College recently featured a new book based on the Center’s Wandering Objects conference, held in 2018 and co-hosted with the NC Museum of Art.
The Lives of Jewish Things: Collecting and Curating Material Culture (Wayne State University Press), edited by Gabrielle Anna Berlinger and Ruth von Bernuth.
Q: Can you give us a brief synopsis of your book?
A: The Lives of Jewish Things was born out of an invigorating three-day international symposium entitled, “Wandering Objects: Collecting and Curating Jewish Material Culture,” that we co-organized with the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) in 2018. Specifically, UNC’s Carolina Center for Jewish Studies collaborated with the Judaic Art Gallery of the NCMA to invite esteemed scholars, museum curators, and private collectors — all experts in Jewish material culture — to participate in a series of panels, roundtables and convivial meals to engage their diverse perspectives on the collection, interpretation, display and use of Jewish objects in the 21st century.
This book extends the symposium conversations, featuring essays by participants that trace the journeys of Jewish “things” across time periods, places and cultures.
Read the full Bookmark This article online.
Gabrielle Anna Berlinger is an associate professor of American studies and folklore and the Babette S. and Bernard J. Tanenbaum Scholar in Jewish History and Culture. Ruth von Bernuth is a professor in the department of Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures and the former director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.