Unmasking Prejudice: Confronting Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Racism Across Europe

 

This lecture series delves into the complex and often intertwined phenomena of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism in contemporary Europe. As xenophobic and discriminatory ideologies resurface and intensify across the continent, this series aims to critically examine the historical roots, present manifestations, and future implications of these forms of prejudice. Through interdisciplinary approaches, leading scholars, activists, and policymakers will engage in discussions on how social, political, and economic factors contribute to these biases, exploring their impact on communities and individuals.

 

FALL GUEST SPEAKERS: 

 

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Wesley W. Posvar Hall, Room 4900
4:00PM 

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"How Does One Become Racist?"
 Carole Reynaud-Paligot, Centre d'histoire du XIXe siècle - Université Paris 

 

 

 

 

While genetics has invalidated the notion of "human races", racism has not disappeared. How can we shed light on this paradox? By mobilizing the social sciences (social psychology, history, sociology, anthropology), we can understand why stereotypes and racism continue to thrive. The conference, illustrated by comic strips, will help us to understand these phenomena, and to think about how we can fight racism more effectively.

About the Speaker:

Carole Reynaud-Paligot is a graduate of the Institut d’études politiques [Institute of Political Studies] in Grenoble, with a doctorate from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales [School of Advances Studies in Social Sciences] and a habilitation (HDR) from Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Currently, she is a Visiting Professor at CUNY. A specialist in the history of intellectuals and the history of racial thinking and process of racialization, she is a research fellow at the Centre de recherche d’histoire du XIXe siècle [Center for the Research of the History of the 19th Century] at Paris1-Paris 4 and has been teaching sociology and history at the University of Burgundy since 2018.Previously, she taught at the Université de Franche-Comté and at the Paris branch offices of American universities (including New York University and UC Berkeley) and Sciences po Paris. She was co-curator of the exhibition “Us and the Others, from Prejudice to Racism,” which took place at the Musée de l'Homme [Museum of Man] in Paris in 2017-2018 and which is currently circulating in France and abroad. She has written eight books, notably: Parcours politique des surréalistes 1919-1969, (CNRS éditions, 1995, réédition en poche, 2010); De l’identité nationale. Science, Race et politique en Europe et aux Etats-Unis. XIXe-XXe siècles (PUF, 2011); La République raciale. Une Histoire (PUF, „Quadrige“, 2021); L’Ecole aux colonies entre mission civilisatrice et racialisation 1815-1940, (Champ Vallon, 2020).

 

 

Monday October 21, 2024
Wesley W. Posvar Hall, Room 4130
1:00 PM 

Apicture containing textDiscription automatically generated"Europe's Other Jew and Muslim: Past and Present."
 Speaker: Farid Hafez, William and Mary

 

 

 

In daily politics, antisemitism and Islamophobia are often debated as two opposing concepts, though they have much in common.  This talk delves into often neglected relationships of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim racism and opens up horizons for a critical discussion about these phenomena.

Farid Hafez is Assistant Teaching Professor of International Relations. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Vienna (2009). From 2014 to 2021, he was a Post-Doc at the University of Salzburg’s Department of Political Science and Sociology. From 2021 to 2024, he was the Distinguished Class of 1955 Visiting Professor of International Studies at Williams College. In 2017, he had been a Fulbright Professor at University of California’s Center for Race and Gender. Since 2017, he has also been a non-resident Senior Researcher at the Georgetown University’s The Bridge Initiative.

Hafez has published more than 150 academic publications. He has been the founding editor of the German-English Islamophobia Studies Yearbook and co-editor of the European Islamophobia Report. In 2015, he received the Bruno Kreisky Award for the political book of the year for his anthology Islamophobia in Austria (co-ed. with John Bunzl, 2009). His latest publications include The rise of global Islamophobia in the War on Terror. Coloniality, race, and Islam (co-edited with Naved Bakali, Manchester University Press, 2022) and Politicizing Islam in Austria. The Far-Right Impact in the Twenty-First Century (co-authored with Reinhard Heinisch, Rutgers University Press, 2024). His main areas of study include politics and religion, far-right parties and movements, and anti-Muslim racism. 

At William & Mary, Hafez will start to teach classes on far-right populism, Islamophobia, international relations, and terrorism.

 

Monday November 11, 2024
William Pitt Union, Lower Lounge
4:00 PM

“Cycles of Hate: The EU’s Combating Antisemitism Policy from 2015 till today”
 
Speaker: Carolyn Dudek, Hofstra University

 

 

 

Carolyn M. Dudek, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Director of European Studies. She specializes in comparative politics with regional focuses in Europe and Latin America. She is the author of EU Accession and Spanish Regional Development: winners and losers, P.I.E., Peter Lang Press, which explores the domestic impact of European Union policies, including agricultural and cohesion policies. In addition, she has published several articles and book chapters on trans-Atlantic agricultural trade and regulatory disparities, Spanish politics, regional nationalism in Europe, European Union regional development policy and EU-Latin American relations.

Dudek's research she has also engaged in teaching an array of courses such as: Comparative Politics, European Politics, Politics of the European Union, and she has also taught in the interdisciplinary Honor's College Culture and Expression course. In addition to teaching on Hofstra's campus she has also been the director and accompanying faculty for the Hofstra Australia and Prague and Central Europe programs, and an instructor in the Hofstra Venice, Spain and Australia programs. She was also selected twice to teach in the Semester at Sea program, which is a floating university that circumnavigates the globe. In 2021, Dudek was named Mentor of the Year.

Professor Dudek's current research focuses on the European Union's combating antisemitism policy. She is also the grant writer and primary coordinator for an ERASMUS+ Jean Monnet module on EU anti-discrimination and hate crime policy.

 

Co-Sponsors:

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Department of French and Italian
Department of History
Department of Religious Studies
Jewish Studies Program
Religious Studies Department
European Studies Center
University Center for International Studies