Text & Textile: The Worlds of Ladino (HISTORY 134T, JEWISHST 134)

3 credits · Undergraduate

What are the diasporas of the Sephardic Jews? How have Sephardic Jews interacted with their diasporic homes and how have empires and nations responded to Sephardic communities? We will explore the cultures, histories, diasporas, literatures, and linguistics of Ladino. From the Iberian Peninsula to Western Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and Palestine, and especially - to Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States: How are cultures and languages passed down across generations? How do minority languages change across diaspora and across time? How has gender played a role in the transmission of Ladino? How do objects play a role in cultural memory? And what do Ladino histories teach us about Jewish history, and about diasporic history, more broadly? Reading options in English, Spanish, and Ladino.