Colloquy session 4: Language and material force

Topic: Get[ting] into the flow of reading: language and material force in a Liberal Talmud Torah classroom

Speaker: Dr Anastasia Badder

As part of their Jewish education, the students of a Liberal Talmud Torah school in Luxembourg learn to read Hebrew. Entering the classroom expecting to engage Hebrew in the same ways they do other foreign languages at home and school, the students are surprised and frustrated to find that Hebrew works differently. Speaking to recent anthropological work on the materiality of language (Shankar & Cavanaugh 2012) and inspired by new materialist perspectives on literacy (Dagenais 2019), this lecture traces students’ language learning journeys, focussing on the material forces—including music, voice, and ambient sound—required for successful literacy performances and effective ritual practice in this Talmud Torah school.

The advance reading for this session is:

• Anastasia Badder (2022) ‘I just want you to get into the flow of reading’: Reframing Hebrew proficiency as an enactment of Liberal Jewishness’. Language & Communication 87: 221¬–230.

About the speaker

Dr Anastasia Badder is a Research Associate in the Faculty of Divinity and an active member of the Cambridge Interfaith Programme team. Her work ethnographically explores contemporary Jewish lives and languages in Europe.

More about Anastasia (via the Lucy Cavendish College website) (lucy.cam.ac.uk)

This event is part of the CIP Summer Colloquy on Religious relations and sound (3 July to 7 August, 2023). Attendance is restricted to those participating in the Colloquy.