RELGST 1652 - ANTISEMITISM, RACE AND GENDER

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This class on Antisemitism, Race and Gender investigates the similarities between gendered antisemitic representations of Jews and other forms of racism and sectarianism in Europe and America from the Middle Ages onwards. This interdisciplinary class takes a broad and deep approach to its subject matter, tracing the long history of antisemitism and racism; from obsessions with blood purity in early modern Spain and the rise of the Atlantic slave trade to scientific racism, imperialism, and social Darwinism in the nineteenth century. The class ends with a focus on the survival of racism into the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries, contemporary Islamophobia and the recent resurgence of antisemitism in North America. The prominent role of gender in antisemitic representations of Jews, and in racist iconography more broadly, will be foregrounded throughout. The visual nature of antisemitism and racism is a major theme of this class and in-class discussions would be structured around cartoons, woodcuts, and posters that I would present to the students. As the class progresses, I encourage students to engage in their own interpretations of visual material and students are introduced to the study of history using material culture as a source material - an essential skill for anyone studying gender and race. This class does not aim to give students a complete history of antisemitism - that would almost certainly be impossible to achieve in just 15 weeks. What the class does aim to do, though, is to show how anti-Black racism, white supremacy and misogyny can and should be understood as having a shared history with antisemitism. The hatred and extremism that has come more to the fore in American life since 2016 has anti-Jewish roots. This means that the class has a western-centric focus, not because I think "the West" is more important than anywhere else, but because we all currently live in a western country and in this class we are going to trace the development of a specific and very negative strand of western culture. Sections (i) through (iii) are arranged chronologically, to give an overview of the historical roots and development of antisemitism. Having acquired this historical understanding, students will then engage, sections (iv) and (v), in two extended (and controversial!) case studies of contemporary antisemitism. Classes will be a mixture of lectures and discussions of the assigned readings.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SU3 Elective Basis

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