This summer, Ph. D Candidate Casey Carsel travelled to London, Manchester, Prague, and Warsaw, conducting initial exploratory dissertation research at various archives. Highlights included a visit to the archives at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where she got the chance to see a Torah ark curtain about which she had previously written; time with items from the Gaster Amulet Collection at the University of Manchester, including a palm-sized papercut amulet; and a tour of a Prague synagogue built in the thirteenth century. In Warsaw, she took part in the 24th International Summer Seminar in Yiddish Language and Culture, which proved an invaluable opportunity to immerse in Yiddishland, expanding my language skills, cultural knowledge, and world-wide network of Yiddishists. The weather was hot, the radishes were sweet, and much was learnt. 

This trip was generously funded by Sara Jane Pyne Memorial Scholarship Fund in the Visual Arts and the ASC Arts and Humanities Graduate Research Small Grant.