Gender

• In Event: Transnational potentials in (American) Jewish studies and its various subfields

Abstract

In the last two decades, gender historians have increasingly moved beyond the confines of their national boundaries; influenced by the transnational turn, they have scrutinized how the interaction of familial relationships, economic cycles, systems of transportation, migratory patterns, structures of knowledge, and individual circumstances are gendered. Their studies have blended together transnational history with an investigation into the history of sexuality, migration, labor, politics, households, communities and identities.
Transnational history has allowed me to consider the exchanges among diverse groups of Jews and non-Jews without losing the larger context of gender, power relations, and difference. Using my current research project – a study of European and North African Jewish military brides from 1943-1955 -- as a way to frame the conversation, my short paper will reflect on some of the ways in which transnational history has shaped Jewish gender history. Between 1943 and 1950, approximately 4500 Jewish women on the European and North African continents married American, British, and Canadian soldiers; relying on these Jewish civilian-military marriages as my guide, my paper will consider how transnational methodologies help deepen our understanding of the comparative aspects of gender, gender roles, and the gendered nature of power relations. Some of the questions I hope to consider will include: How, if at all, does transnational history push the gendered history of Jewish migration in new directions? In what ways does transnational history reframe gender history master narratives? What are some of the obstacles in writing a gendered transnational history?

Author

• Robin E. Judd, Ohio State University