From Feb ’10 Spotlight: Margaret Olin gave a terrific lecture on Jan 10 in connection with the Anna Shteynshleyger exhibit currently on display in Cobb Hall at the University of Chicago. After many years at the Art Institute, Olin is now Senior Research Scholar at the Yale Divinity School. Her lecture, Jewish Space, asked us consider what makes a specific space “Jewish.” Starting with Shteynshleyger’s depiction of her grandmother’s empty apartment in Moscow, Olin segued gracefully from the work of sculptor George Segal to photographs of eruvim in various American and Israeli cities. Fascinating!
There’s still time to see the exhibit, and hear one or both of the last two tie-in programs. Leora Auslander, Professor of Modern European Social History at the University of Chicago (and member of both the Center for Gender Studies as well as the Committee on Jewish Studies), will present Sexy Challahs, Pregnant Shabbat Candlesticks, and Women with Sidelocks: Anna Shteynshleyger’s Embodied Judaism on Feb 7. On closing day (Feb 14), University of Pennsylvania poet Charles Bernstein will do a reading from his own contribution to the new collection Radical Poetics and Secular Jewish Culture.
Both programs begin at 2 PM and are free and open to the public. For complete information, visit: www.RenaissanceSociety.org.
