This talk will offer an overview of Judaken’s recently published book, Critical Theories of Anti-Semitism. In it, he offers a philosophical reflection on crucial problems in how we think about anti-Semitism and a history of its leading theories and theorists. Judaken explores methodological and conceptual issues that have vexed the study of Judeophobia and calls for a reconsideration of the definitions, categories, and narratives that underpin overarching explanations. The book examines theories from thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, the Frankfurt School, Hannah Arendt, and Jean-François Lyotard, alongside works of sociologists and historians to reassess contemporary debates about anti-Semitism. Judaken argues against claims about the uniqueness of Judeophobia, demonstrating how it is entangled with Islamophobia, Negrophobia, and xenophobia.
Jonathan Judaken is the Goldstein Professor of Jewish History and Thought at Washington University in St. Louis. He has published more than 50 academic articles on the history of existentialism, critical theory, anti-Semitism, racism, and post-Holocaust French Jewish thought. He has written, edited, or co-edited 7 books, most recently Critical Theories of Anti-Semitism (Columbia University Press, June 2024), and he is completing Judeophobia and Anti-Semitism: A Primary Source Reader from its Origins to the Present (Palgrave).
Tuesday, October 8 @ 5:00-6:30pm
370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley campus
* This event will also be livestreamed. Livestream information willbe sent to registrants the day of the lecture.
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Sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies.