INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR RESEARCH ON ANTISEMITISM AND RACISM – new initiative announced by David Feldman at the Pears Institute in London

An international research consortium to promote the study of antisemitism is
launched today (Tuesday 8 November, 2011).  Co-convened by David Feldman, Pears
Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London and Scott
Ury, Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism,
Tel Aviv University, the International Consortium for Research on Antisemitism and
Racism (ICRAR) involves leading scholars from universities and institutes across
Europe, Israel and the US, who share the common goal of revitalising and reshaping
the study of antisemitism. 

The Consortium will promote rigorous, independent research that looks to related
fields and other disciplines for insight and embraces new theoretical and
methodological approaches. To promote and foster new thinking on antisemitism, the
Consortium will hold annual workshops and summer schools and produce publications of
the outcomes. The first workshop will be Boycotts: Past and Present. This will be
held in London in 2012, hosted by the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism.

David Feldman explains: "Antisemitism is an important and contentious problem. Yet
our understanding of it remains under-developed. The study of antisemitism too often
stands in isolation from related fields of inquiry and has failed to benefit from
contemporary intellectual currents that encourage new thinking and approaches.
Scholarly work has also suffered from the politicisation of the field, being
corralled by immediate political concerns. This has foreshortened our understanding
of antisemitism, both in the past and critically, in the present, and undermines the
contribution academics can make to overcome it."

Scott Ury adds: "The Consortium wants to reshape and revitalise the study of
antisemitism. We are predominantly a group of historians, but in our collective
endeavour we will reach out across disciplinary boundaries. We aim to shed light on
the content, meanings, functions and dynamics of antisemitism. Importantly, we will
also explore the connections between antisemitism and other racisms."

Other founding members of the Consortium are:

François Guesnet, University College London
Jonathan Judaken, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee
Veronika Lipphardt, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
Michael Miller, Central European University, Budapest
Amos Morris-Reich, University of Haifa
Maurice Samuels, Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism, New Haven, Connecticut
Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University, Berlin.