Modules
Courses / Modules / HIST1209 Antisemitism and Islamophobia in modern European history

Antisemitism and Islamophobia in modern European history

When you'll study it
Semester 2
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 4
Module lead
Noemie Duhaut
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

Reports about the growth antisemitic and Islamophobic speech and acts regularly make the headlines in Europe and globally. In the case of antisemitism, this has led to accusations that left-wing antizionism or postcolonial migration are to blame for the rise of a new form of antisemitism. And yet, if contemporary commentators often draw parallels between antisemitism and Islamophobia, they rarely look at these two phenomena in the same frame or in a wider historical context. Focusing on modern Europe, this course will explore the origins, causes, and motivations of antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as their connections to both religion and secular ideologies. We will consider how these two projects of exclusion overlap and diverge, whether antisemitism differs from other forms of prejudice (and if so, how so), their constitutive role in national and imperial projects, as well as the various forms they have taken.