Invitation of Professor Manuela Consonni, Hebrew University

Antisemitism research in Sweden is both vast and limited, vast in the sense that antisemitism is referred to in countless studies in various disciplines and limited in the sense that it rarely is the main topic of the study.

Swedish research in the field got off to an early and auspicious start with a groundbreaking study by historian Hugo Valentin in 1935.

However, it was not until 1999/2000 the first (three) dissertations appeared, and it took some twenty years before the next two were published. Not only is the research scattered, but so are the researchers.

Against this background, historian Karin Kvist Geverts in 2020 concluded, "antisemitism is a neglected field of research in Sweden." She is right. However, since 2020 two things have happened. There has been an upsurge in antisemitism studies, and there is funding.

We want to use this momentum to further develop antisemitism research in Sweden by inviting a world-leading scholar in the field, professor Manuela Consonni, Director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, and establish contact between her and all interested scholars in the field in Sweden and the other Nordic countries.

Using the newly established Swedish and Nordic research networks in the field, we will organize workshops and seminars in Uppsala, Malmö and Gothenburg and involve professor Consonni in work on research applications and a course for graduate students.