Histories of the conversos influenced Spanish and Portuguese politics, societies, and cultures well into modern times. Collective anxieties vis-à-vis the conversos contributed to the establishment of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, the distinction between “New Christians” and “Old Christians”, as well as the emergence of “purity of blood” (limpieza de sangre) statutes, which some scholars identify as the beginning of modern antisemitism.

In his controversial 2009 “The Other Within,” Yirmiyahu Yovel designated the conversos as “forerunners of modernity,” and highlighted their importance, among others, for the modern transformation of religion, the rise of the individual, religious hybridity, and plural identities. The book has triggered heavy criticism but it also provoked major discussions that continue until today.

This lecture series touches upon some of these discussions and the background needed to understand fully the conversos’ impact and importance. Internationally renowned researchers feature prominently in this series, as they share their respective insights, questions, and scholarly critiques with students, fellow scholars, and the wider public.

Programme :

17. April – Susanne Zepp-Zwirner (Duisburg-Essen): Writing Difference in an Age of Essentialism: Converso Literature and Belonging in Early Modern Europe

24. April – Moisés Orfali (Ramat Gan): The Spanish Jewish Converso: The Theme of the Other

8. Mai – Harm den Boer (Basel): Vision deleitable: From 15th Century Converso Thought to Seventeenth-Century Re-Translation in Amsterdam

15. Mai – Carsten Wilke (Vienna) Between Romanticism and Marxism: The Conversos in Twentieth-Century Controversies

22. Mai – Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld (Amsterdam): Women of Sephardi Heritage in Early Modern Times: The Iberian Peninsula and Beyond

5. Juni – Ronnie Perelis (New York): Converso Self-Fashioning

19. Juni – Bernhard Holl (Berlin): Being Anti-Converso in Fifteenth Century Spain: a Modern Position?

26. Juni – Miriam Bodian (Jerusalem): Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom: Creating a Practice

3. Juli – David Graizbord (Tucson): Ways of Belonging among Conversos: 15th–17th Centuries

10. Juli – Tanja Zakrzewski (Potsdam): The Same but Different? Conversos and Moriscos in Early Modern Spain

17. Juli – Claude Stuczynski (Ramat Gan): Converso Crypto-Judaism: A Mere Matter of Identity and Memory?

Informations pratiques :

17.04.2025 – 17.07.2025

Potsdam

henning.krakow@uni-potsdam.de

Source : H-Soz-Kult