“Independent Jewish Women in Medieval Cairo: Enterprise and Ambiguity” was given by Judith Baskin, the Philip H. Knight Professor in Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon. Presenting her latest project, Professor Baskin describes the ways in which women were surprisingly autonomous in Medieval Jewish society. After examining and studying the laws of the time, Baskin shares her insight into the daily lives of women who are usually left out of the history of the era.
Since earning her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University in 1976, Professor Baskin has taught at several universities including UMass Amherst, SUNY New York, and currently the University of Oregon. She is the author of several books including Midrashic Women: Formations of the Feminine in Rabbinic Literature (2002) and Pharaoh’s Counselors: Job, Jethro and Balaam in Rabbinic and Patristic Tradition (1983). As a renowned Jewish Studies scholar, Baskin was the President of the Association for Jewish Studies from 2004 to the end of 2006. Currently, she’s writing a feminist commentary on the Tractate Megillah, which describes the different laws of Medieval Babylonia.
This talk was held on March 23, 2016 in Chapin Hall at Amherst College.
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