UNC Asheville to Host Talk on German-Jewish History

UNC Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies will host a talk by historian Jonathan Hess on “Germans, Jews and the Claims of Modernity” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, in UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center. In his talk, Hess will explore the contentious debates over the emancipation of the Jews in late 18th and early 19th century Germany. The talk is free and open to the public.

Hess, a professor of Germanic languages at UNC Chapel Hill, is a distinguished expert on German-Jewish cultural and intellectual history. He is an adjunct professor in religious studies and serves as the director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. His book, “Germans, Jews and the Claims on Modernity” was selected by Choice magazine as an outstanding academic title for 2003 and won honorable mention in the Modern Languages Association’s Scaglione Prize in Germanic Languages and Literature. He is also the author of “Reconstituting the Body Politic: Enlightenment, Public Culture and the Invention of Aesthetic Autonomy” in addition to several articles on German literature, aesthetics and intellectual history.

The talk is part of a statewide lecture series sponsored by UNC Chapel Hill’s Carolina Center for Jewish Studies and is funded by the Charles H. Revson Foundation.

For more information, call UNC Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies at 828/251-6576.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Gordon Wilson, UNC Asheville Philosophy Department Chair and Professor, 828/251-6349
• Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526