Franz Rosenzweig was one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, and in recent years his journals, letters, and writings have been an important spur to thinking about the possibilities and limits of the humanities. He also remains a central figure in fields as varied as literature, history, philosophy, and religious studies.
The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University will host a symposium on March 13-14, to discuss his works, including his most famous treatise, The Star of Redemption. All events are free and open to the public.
The symposium will also feature a reading of recently discovered and translated love letters Rosenzweig wrote to Gritli Rosenstock. This will be the first time exerpts of the letters have been available in English.
The Rosenzweig symposium is part of a series of special events titled “A Place for the Humanities” in celebration of Vanderbilt University’s Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities 20th anniversary. It is presented in association with the Vanderbilt University Library, the Program in Jewish Studies, the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies and the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture.
The center promotes interdisciplinary research and study in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Because cooperative study in higher education is crucial to the modern university and the society it influences, the center is designed to intensify and increase interdisciplinary discussion of academic, social and cultural issues.
Thinking with Franz Rosenzweig Schedule
Thursday, March 13
Room 205, Buttrick Hall
4:10 p.m.
Opening lecture Helmut Walser Smith, Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of History,
Director, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University The Nineteenth Century Turns to and Away from the Humanities. Leopold Zunz, Franz Rosenzweig, and the Predicament of Scholarship 5:30 p.m. Rosenzweig’s Love Letters to Gritli Rosenstock, A Reading 6:30 p.m. Reception at the Robert Penn Warren Center
Friday, March 14
Auditorium, Bishop Johnson Black Cultural Center
9:30 a.m. Youth
Meike Werner, Associate Professor of German, Vanderbilt University Franz Rosenzweig as a Young Intellectual: Reflections on His Diaries Jim McFarland, Assistant Professor of German Studies, Connecticut College
Rosenzweig and Benjamin: Young Intellectuals and the Modern 11:30 a.m. Writing/1
Barbara Hahn, Distinguished Professor of German, Vanderbilt University A New Grammar of the Soul: The Correspondence Gritli Rosenstock-Franz Rosenzweig1:30 p.m. Writing/2
Gesine Palmer, Prof. of Religious Studies, University of Luzern Writing The Star of Redemption3 p.m. Life and Thought
Nils Roemer, Assistant Professor of History, University of Texas, Dallas Franz Rosenzweig: Letters of Love and Thoughts of Longing Steve Dowden, Professor of German, Brandeis University Rosenzweig, Weber, and the Call
Media Contact: Missy Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
missy.pankake@vanderbilt.edu