Faculty Antisemitism Before and After October 7

Antizionist faculty members have a unique role in defining and rationalizing the terms, rhetoric, and key arguments behind what is increasingly a movement dedicated to discrediting or eliminating the Jewish state, not debating its policies. This course is designed both to look at their specific strategies and to ask what can be done to restore rational, evidence-based discussion to campus in the light of the highly polarized environment we confront.

We will begin by looking at the vexing, continually debated question about whether anti-Zionism and antisemitism are fundamentally different or deeply interrelated phenomena. We will then examine a couple of antizionist faculty careers in detail and look at efforts to analyze and evaluate them. We will also ask what cultural and political work such evaluations can do. One does not generally hope to reach already committed opponents of Israel, including those who urge a boycott of Israeli universities, but rather to interest the undecided and to empower allies with detailed evidence they cannot acquire independently.

We also need to ask how the context for such work has changed since the watershed day of October 7. Certainly even established supporters of Hamas dramatically escalated their rhetoric soon thereafter. A new antizionist group has arisen, Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP),  and it has chapters on 100 key campuses. Did a basic transformation of antizionist antisemitism take place in the wake of that day? How has the campus climate changed as a result and what strategies are available to us in response?

Session 1: Anti-Zionism versus antisemitism? 

Session 2: Jasbir Puar and Lara Sheehi

Two widely celebrated anti-Zionist faculty members, both with careers devoted to that cause. Puar teaches in Women’s Studies at Rutgers, Sheehi taught in psychology at George Washington University until departing for Doha University in Qatar in January 2024.

Session 3: The challenge of faculty conduct on social media

Session 4: The ruptured world of October 7

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