24/01/2026
Join Professor Devin Naar on Zoom next week as he delivers the first talk in this year's Sephardi Modernities Seminar Series: 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐷𝑖𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑎: 𝐴 𝑀𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖-𝑅𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑐 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, January 26, 9:30 am PT/ 12:30 pm ET
In this presentation, Devin Naar will interrogate the concept of diaspora in relation to Sephardic Jewish history by drawing on the work of the French philosopher Edgar Morin (né Nahoum), who coined the term poly-enracinement (“multirootedness”) to describe his own forebears—as Salonican, Sephardic, Jewish, Turkish, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Mediterranean. A “multirooted” approach seeks not only to overturn the conception of Jews as “rootless” or as linked to just one or two locales, but also to avoid establishing a hierarchy of importance among the many different potential “homelands” or cultural and political communities to which Sepharadim may lay claim. By reference to the cultural production of Judeo-Spanish–speaking Jews—including poetry and prose—this talk traces how engaging with the metaphor of “multirootedness” can open up new understandings of the complexities and competing claims of belonging that have shaped Sephardic trajectories across generations.
Registration link in the first comment!
