Dartmouth professor of Jewish Studies Susannah Heschel will give the Oregon Humanities Center’s 2014–15 Tzedek Lecture, “Ethical Challenges of Scholarship,” on Wednesday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in 182 Lillis Hall. 

In her lecture, Heschel will examine some of the ethical challenges scholars face using three case studies. They include the 19th-century development of Christian scholarship on Judaism and Jewish scholarship on Christianity, the politicization of scholarship in universities in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and contemporary debates over the presentation of the Israel-Palestine conflict within the fields of Middle East Studies and Israel Studies.

Scholarship is about the pursuit of truth, Heschel says, but the choice of topics, the material presented and its evaluation and interpretation are infused with the politics and culture of the era and reflect moral judgments. Her conclusion will emphasize the importance of the humanities as a guide to dealing with the thicket of ethical quandaries facing scholars in a wide range of fields.

Heschel’s lecture is free and open to the public and will be live-streamed on the web. It is part of the humanities center’s yearlong theme series called “connection.”

For more information go to ohc.uoregon.edu or contact ohc@uoregon.edu.