On Wednesday, November 15, we were joined virtually for a lecture by our Plessner New Perspectives in Holocaust and Antisemitism Studies Award recipient, Mia Brett, titled “Antisemitism, Critical Race Theory, and the Politics of Anti-Discrimination Scholarship.”
In this political moment the academy is under attack from the weaponization of Critical Race Theory and American Jewish history to justify erasing historical education and politicize academic scholarship. Accusations of antisemitism are being used to attack Critical Race Theory when CRT is a vital tool to better understanding antisemitism and historical legal discrimination against Jews in the United States. This lecture will discuss the importance of studying legal antisemitism in the United States to fighting both current attacks on the academy and Jews in American life.
Mia Brett holds a PhD in History from Stony Brook University specializing in American legal history and the study of the legal construction of race and gender. Her dissertation, "The Murdered Jewess: Jewish Immigration and the Problem of Citizenship in the Courtroom in Late Nineteenth Century New York," used Critical Race Theory to study anti Jewish bigotry in American law. She is currently teaching at Suffolk Community College.
Dr. Brett’s lecture is available to view in full below.
This event was made possible by the generosity of Rene Plessner and the Kaye family.
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