Antisemitism and Islamophobia: Old and new forms of hate

This unit explores the historical, religious, sociological and political dimensions of Antisemitism and Islamophobia in a comparative framework. Tracing the origins of Antisemitism from Antiquity through the Modern Era the unit considers the historical expressions and contemporary manifestations of the world’s oldest hate-speech as well as the rise of Islamophobic ideas in the twenty-first century and its continuities and ruptures with medieval western conceptions of Islam. The unit will also explore the similarities and differences between Antisemitism and Islamophobia and efforts to combat them, as well as contemporary debates on the boundaries between anti-Zionism and Antisemitism, and anti-terrorism and anti-multicultural discourse and Islamophobia.