Early Career Speaker Series - Fall 2025: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Historical Legacies and Persistent Challenges
Our digital speaker series brings together early-career scholars whose work engages with the shifting dynamics of antisemitism in the aftermath of October 7. Across six sessions in Fall 2025, the series highlights new research from graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and junior faculty working at the intersection of disciplines such as Jewish studies, social psychology, political science, sociology, Holocaust studies, linguistics, and digital media analysis.
We invite you to explore how antisemitism is perceived, articulated, and contested in diverse academic, cultural, and political settings. Each session features two short talks followed by moderated discussion, offering opportunities for critical engagement and interdisciplinary exchange.
For inquiries, please contact organizers Dr. Daniel Miehling (damieh@iu.edu) or Rachel Kelly (rk18@iu.edu).
Session One: Framing Antisemitism in International and Historical Contexts
Wednesday, September 03, 2025 @ 12pm Eastern
Batsheva Neuer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) - "Framing Israel: Antisemitism and the Postcolonial Imaginary at the Durban Conference"
Batsheva Neuer is a PhD candidate and fellow at the Avraham Harman Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation, awarded the 2024 Bernard Lewis Prize, investigates Israel and the global politics of racism in the lead-up to the Durban Conference. She has held fellowships at SICSA and the Cherrick Center and recently published in Israel Studies on the revocation of the “Zionism is Racism” UN resolution.
Tami Peterson (Gratz College) - "Mobilization for Murder: Considering Antisemitism as a Causal Factor of the Deadly 1941 Pogroms"
Tami Peterson is a PhD candidate at Gratz College and currently serves as the inaugural Visiting Student Scholar at NYU’s Center for the Study of Antisemitism. She is also a Research Fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. She holds an MRes in Social & Political Theory from Birkbeck, University of London.
Session Two: Left-Wing Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 @ 12pm Eastern
Matheus Alexandré (Federal University of Ceará) - "Contemporary Left-Wing Antisemitism in Brazil: Discourse of Representations in the Portal Brasil 247"
Matheus Alexandré is a Brazilian sociologist and PhD candidate whose research examines antisemitism and anti-Zionism in left-wing political discourse. He lectures at StandWithUs Brazil and was trained at Yad Vashem and the University of Oxford. His work appears in both academic journals and public platforms like Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil.
Maor Shani (Osnabrück University / Ariel University) - "'Unfortunately, Given the Current Climate...': Antisemitism Accommodation as Indirect Discrimination Post-October 7"
Maor Shani holds a Ph.D. in psychology and researches intergroup conflict, antisemitism, and adolescent polarization. His doctoral work addressed Jewish-Arab reconciliation, and his current projects explore group-based emotions, discrimination coping strategies, and social network interventions. He is affiliated with Osnabrück University and Ariel University.
Session Three: Antisemitism and the Digital Sphere
Thursday, October 16, 2025 @ 11:30am Eastern
Lev Topor (Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo / ISGAP) - "Artificially Amplified: Challenges and Complexities of Dealing with Online and AI-Enhanced Antisemitism"
Dr. Lev Topor is a policy-oriented researcher specializing in antisemitism, cybersecurity, and intelligence. He is the author of multiple books, including Phishing for Nazis (Routledge, 2023) and Cyber Sovereignty (Springer Nature, 2024). He has held fellowships at Cambridge and Yad Vashem, andadvised governmental and intergovernmental bodies on cyber policy and hate speech.
Daniel Miehling (Indiana University) - "Affect Mobilization on YouTube: Emotional Toning in State-Funded News Outlets Covering the Israel-Hamas War"
Abstract: How do users emotionally and ideologically respond to state-funded media coverage of the Israel–Hamas War on YouTube? This talk presents findings from two recently published studies analyzing millions of comments using aspect-based sentiment analysis. The approach reveals patterns of affective alignment, polarization, and coded language in user-generated discourse. I show how this method yields scalable insights and provides robust tools for analyzing online antisemitism and political discourse in digital environments.
Session Four: Campus Climate, Identity, and Belonging
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 @ 12pm Eastern
Yael Silverstein (Columbia University) - "Ambient Antisemitism and the Struggle for Belonging: Insights into University Environments"
Yael Silverstein is a doctoral student in Social-Organizational Psychology and an MS candidate in Applied Statistics at Columbia University. Her research explores how stereotypes and organizational cues influence perception, belonging, and well-being in minority populations. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and dual BAs from Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Nadia Beider (Hebrew University / JPPI) - "Antisemitism and Jewish Day School Enrollment in Europe"
Dr. Nadia Beider is a lecturer at the Melton Center for Jewish Education and leads the Jewish Day School Census at the JPPI. She was previously a Rothschild postdoc at UCL and a Martin Buber Fellow. Her research focuses on educational sociology, Jewish identity, and the intersection of religion and discrimination.
Session Five: Antisemitism in Progressive and Academic Contexts
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 @ 12pm Eastern
Talia Rockman (University of Ottawa) - "The Gentileman's Agreement: Patterns Between Misogyny and Antisemitism"
Talia Rockman is an MA candidate in Sociology at the University of Ottawa and holds a B.A. (Hon.) in Psychology from the University of Guelph. She has held Research Assistant roles for several projects related to the impact of antisemitism on Canadian campuses, including in the context of EDI, faculty unions, and academic freedom and mental health. She has presented her theoretical framework on the structural parallels between misogyny and antisemitism, and chaired panels, at the 2025 Conference for Contemporary Antisemitism in London and at the 2025 Brock University Antisemitism Symposium. Talia intends to pursue doctoral work where she will continue to research contemporary antisemitism.
Perla Matusof is a doctoral researcher at Brock University, specializing in contemporary antisemitism in academic and institutional contexts. Her research integrates discourse analysis and psycholinguistic tools to differentiate between antisemitic rhetoric and legitimate critique, with particular attention to its impact on Jewish students and academics. Her academic background includes studies at Université Paris 8 and Brock University. She is actively involved in educational and community initiatives addressing Holocaust memory, Jewish identity, and antisemitism in Canada. She is also a research fellow with the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.
Session Six: Weaponizing Holocaust Memory and Antisemitism in the Ivory Tower
Wednesday, December 03, 2025 @ 12pm Eastern
Marlene Gallner (Indiana University) - "How Memory of the Holocaust is Used against Jews Today"
Marlene Gallner is a Visiting Research Associate at the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. She is one of the editors of sans phrase. Zeitschrift für Ideologiekritik, the Vienna-based biannual German-language journal dedicated to social and cultural analyses in the tradition of Frankfurt school critical theory. She has lectured and published widely on antisemitism, postwar German society, and post-Shoah philosophy.
Zahava Feldstein (Gratz College) - "Campus Antisemitism and Critical Theory"
Zahava Feldstein is a researcher, speaker, and author specializing in campus antisemitism, Jewish education, and ethnic studies. She has spoken at universities and organizations worldwide and leads research, curriculum, and network development initiatives bridging scholarship and public discourse. Zahava received a MA in Divinity (History of Judaism) from the University of Chicago, where she was a Divinity Dean’s Fellow and a recipient of the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) academic-year award. She earned a MA in Education from Stanford University, where she was a Jim Joseph Doctoral Fellow in Education & Jewish Studies prior to withdrawing from the PhD program in response to pervasive and targeted antisemitism. Zahava is currently pursuing a doctorate in Antisemitism Studies at Gratz College in its inaugural cohort. An impactful storyteller whose writing reaches broad audiences, Zahava’s November 2024 Moment Magazine op-ed about antisemitism at Stanford was the second most-read of the year, and her 2025 Times of Israel essay—“How I Learned to Stop Apologizing for Being a Jew”—trended globally within hours of publication, reaching #2 on the site’s “Most Popular” list.
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