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.

Spring Lecture Series Speakers:

Feeling (Un)safe: Jews, Muslims and the German State Since October 7
Dick Moses, City College of New York
Thursday, March 13, 2025 I Location and Time: TBD

Abstract:

For about 25 years, a minority security dilemma has been crystalizing in Germany. With increasing Muslim immigration, the state has gradually instituted measures to acculturate this small but growing minority to the official memory culture centered on the Holocaust. It does so in part out a concern with Jewish safety, which is increasingly centered on sensitivities about German support of Israel rather than antisemitic crimes, nearly all of which are committed by Christian Germans. To make Jewish people feel safer, Muslim migrants are made to feel less safe. Conversely, Muslim security is experienced as endangering Jews. Therein lies the dilemma. This development hardened dramatically after October 7. How and why the trilateral relationship between the German state and its two non-Christian minorities issued in a dilemma

rather than reconciliation is the subject of this paper.

About the Speaker:

A. Dirk Moses is the Spitzer Professor of International Relations at the City College of New York. He is author and editor of publications on German history and in Genocide Studies, including Nachdem Genozid: Grundlage für eine neue Erinnerungskultur (2023). His public writings on Germany, Gaza, and Ukraine have appeared in the Geschichte der Gegenwart, the Boston Review, Noema Magazine and Lawfare. He edits the Journal of Genocide Research.

From Secularism to Public Order: Identity Politics and the Idea of Muslim Solidarity in France
Kirsten Wesselhoeft, Vassar College
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 I Location and Time: TBD

Abstract: Pending

About the Speaker:

Kirsten Wesselhoeft is associate professor of religion at Vassar College. She is a scholar of contemporary Islam, drawing on ethnography and political analysis to study Muslim thought and culture in contexts shaped by colonial encounters and secular liberalism. Her first book, Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France (Chicago, 2025), shows how young engaged Muslims use disagreement and dissent to cultivate community, a value that is in turn stigmatized by political elites. Her scholarly writing has

appeared in Political Theology, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and Sociology of Islam, among other journals.

2024 FALL SPEAKERS:

How Does One Become Racist?
Carole Reynaud-Paligot, Centre d'histoire du XIXe siècle - Université Paris 1
Tuesday, Sept 24, 2024 I 4900 Posvar Hall @ 4:00 PM ET

Europe's Other Jew and Muslim: Past and Present
Farid Hafez, Assistant Teaching Professor of International Relations, College of William & Mary
Monday, October 21, 2024 I 4130 Posvar Hall @ 1:00 PM ET

Cycles of Hate: The EU’s Combating Antisemitism Policy from 2015 till today
Carolyn M. Dudek, Hofstra University
Monday, November 11, 2024 I WPU, Lower Level @ 4:00 PM ET

Co-Sponsors:
Center for Black European Studies and the Atlantic, Carnegie Mellon University
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Department of French and Italian
Department of History
Department of German
Department of Religious Studies
Jewish Studies Program

European Studies Center
University Center for International Studies