New guest professorship offer in Bielefeld: Anti-Semitism and racism in focus!

New guest professorship offer in Bielefeld: Anti-Semitism and racism in focus!

From the winter semester 2025/2026, Bielefeld University will introduce a new visiting professorship with the title “Interdisciplinary Criticism of Anti-Semitism and Racism”. Here, Dr. Sina Arnold, a proven expert in this field, will take over the professorship. Currently reported that Dr. Arnold works at the Center for Anti-Semitism Research and the Research Institute for Social Cohesion at the Technical University of Berlin.

The aim of the visiting professorship is to strengthen research and teaching on the critical examination of anti-Semitism and racism. Dr. Arnold will give two public lectures as part of her professorship. These will take place on November 5, 2025 and December 3, 2025 and deal with central topics in the context of anti-Semitism and racism.

Public lectures by Dr. Arnold

On November 5th at 4 p.m. Dr. Arnold gave a lecture entitled “Anti-Semitism and Racism: Conceptual Considerations for Integrated Research” in lecture hall X-E0-001. The second lecture, taking place on December 3rd at 4 p.m. in room Y-1-202, is entitled "'Yours in Struggle': Anti-Semitism, Racism and Solidarity in the US Women's Movement of the 1980s." These events are intended to help deepen the academic discussion about the links between anti-Semitism and racism.

Dr. Arnold studied ethnology, educational science and political science at the Free University of Berlin and completed her doctorate on anti-Semitism discourses on the US left. Her research interests include institutional racism, antigypsyism, memory politics and social movements. She is currently leading a project on transnational identity politics and the connections between anti-Semitism and racism on the extreme right in Germany and the USA.

Initiatives against discrimination at universities

Bielefeld University is not the only university that deals with these topics. In July 2023, the Senate Working Group “University Critical of Racism and Anti-Semitism” was founded at Goethe University. This working group is supported by the Senate Commission on the Promotion of Women, Equality and Diversity. According to reports The working group consists of members consisting of professors, students, academic staff and external experts.

The aim of the working group is to develop strategies and measures to integrate the topics of racism and anti-Semitism into university structures and to develop concrete recommendations for action to combat these forms of discrimination. The planned duration of the working group is until the end of February 2025.

Master's program in anti-Semitism research

In addition, the Technical University of Berlin offers a master's degree in interdisciplinary anti-Semitism research. This course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of anti-Semitism as a historical and contemporary phenomenon. As the TU Berlin reports, the course covers a variety of topics, including the Holocaust, genocide, racism and intra-societal conflicts.

Students acquire a wide range of disciplinary knowledge from history, sociology, political science as well as literature and art studies. The aim of the course is to promote the ability to deal with social conflicts in a culturally and gender-sensitive manner and to create a teaching and learning environment that promotes internationality.

The new initiatives at universities show that the topic of anti-Semitism and racism is increasingly becoming the focus of academic research and teaching. The introduction of the visiting professorship at Bielefeld University and the diverse programs at other universities make an important contribution to combating discrimination and promoting critical debate.