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Antisemitism in Europe Today: Academic Approaches

London, Sunday, 23 January 2005

European Network for Research into Historical and Current Antisemitism in cooperation with the Centre for German-Jewish Studies at Sussex University Workshop organised by Raphael Gross (Director of the Leo Baeck Institute London and the Centre for German-Jewish Studies at Sussex University) Ben Barkow (Director of the Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library, London) No single methodology has been successful in fully accounting for the complex historical phenomenon of antisemitism. 

The Network seeks to bring together disparate national and disciplinary perspectives on this phenomenon. At the Network’s first workshop open to the public, internationally renowned scholars from different fields will discuss various approaches to the subject. These include contributions from the disciplines of philosophy, sociology, political science and linguistics. 

Programme

11:00 -11.30 Peter Pulzer Welcome address 

11.30 - 12.15 Anthony Lerman (Hanadiv Charitable Foundation) The Problems of Monitoring Antisemitism Chaired by Katherine Klinger 

12.15 - 13.00 Brian Klug (University of Oxford) Definitions of Antisemitism Chaired by Werner Konitzer 

14.15 - 15.00 Michel Wieviorka (EHESS, Paris) Sociological Approach to Antisemitism Chaired by Klaus Holz 

15.00 - 15.45 Ruth Wodak (University of Vienna) Linguistics and Antisemitism Chaired by Lisa Silverman

Speakers

Brian Klug is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Saint Xavier University, Chicago, and Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at St. Benet's Hall, Oxford. He is the US Consulting Editor of Patterns of Prejudice and a founder member of the Jewish Forum for Justice and Human Rights. His recent writings include A Time to Speak Out (Jewish Quarterly, winter 2002/3), The Collective Jew: Israel and the New Antisemitism (Patterns of Prejudice, June 2003). 

Antony Lerman is Chief Executive of Hanadiv Charitable Foundation. He was Director of the Institute of Jewish Affairs and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research as well as one of the founding members of the Jewish Forum for Justice and Human Rights. The former editor of Patterns of Prejudice, an international academic journal on racism and Antisemitism is the author of numerous publications on international and Jewish affairs. 

Michel Wieviorka is Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, and Director of CADIS (Centre d'Analyse et d'Intervention Sociologique). He is the author and editor of publications on a range of subjects from racism and multiculturalism to social movements and terrorism, including The Arena of Racism (Sage) and The Making of Terrorism (University of Chicago Press, new edition 2004). 

Ruth Wodak is Professor of Discourse Studies at Lancaster University. She was Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Vienna where she remains director of the Centre Discourse-Politics-Identity. She is co-director of the Austrian National Focal Point of the European Monitoring Centre for Racism, Xenophobia and Antisemitism, and publishes widely on issues of racism and antisemitism. Current research projects include XENOPHOB on discrimination of migrants in EU countries.