*Mask wearing is compulsory, and we advise attendees to take a lateral flow test beforehand*

Solidarity and Jewish-Muslim dialogue

Drawing on her anthropological work with initiatives in Muslim-Jewish dialogue in the UK, Yulia Egorova will talk about how the participants in these initiatives conceptualise the commonalities and particularities of their communities’ experiences. In this presentation and in conversation with Brian Klug and Aiman Alzetani, she will suggest that her interlocutors from inter-faith groups productively unsettle essentialist theorizations of Jewish and Muslim identities and demonstrate a strong commitment to solidarity with each other, while also paying important analytic attention to the specificities of their Jewish and Muslim co-citizens' social histories.

This event is organised jointly with the Center for Transnational Studies.

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Speaker information

Professor Yulia Egorova, University of Durham, is a Professor of Anthropology. Throughout her work she has explored issues in the study of minority identities, specifically in relation to constructions of difference in public discourses about race and religion, and in the context of science and biotechnology. She is the author of Jews and Muslims in South Asia: Reflections on Difference, Religion and Race (OUP, 2018). Her current research explores interfaith activities in relation to the Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK.

Dr Brian Klug, University of Oxford, is an Emeritus Fellow in Philosophy. His work lies at the intersection between academic philosophy and certain contemporary social and political issues (notably racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and Jewish identity). He has lectured on Wittgenstein and philosophy of religion in Adelaide (International Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia), Ankara (Research Institute for Philosophical Foundations of Disciplines), Frankfurt (Goethe University), Vienna (University of Vienna) and Oxford. Recent publications include chapters in The Dynamics of Difference, Religious Experience Revisited, Do I Belong?, The Medieval Roots of Antisemitism, and The Arab and Jewish Questions. His essay ‘“If I forget Thee, O Jerusalem”: Zionism and the Politics of Collective Memory’ will appear in The Spirit of Populism: Political Theologies in Polarized Times (due 2022).

Dr Aiman Alzetani, University of Southampton, is a cardiothoracic surgery consultant at Southampton hospital and an honorary senior clinical lecturer at Southampton University. His research focuses on various groups at Southampton Biomedical Research Center (BRC). He also delivers courses and workshops on health a d cultural awareness in and out of the NHS, working as a Muslim Faith Advisor at the University of Southampton.

This event will be chaired by Anoushka Alexander-Rose, a Postgraduate Researcher in English at the University of Southampton with the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, which she is also the Karten Outreach Fellow for.