Antisemitism in Austria has a long history going back to the early Middle Ages, having had a presence in civic life throughout the centuries, culminating in the Holocaust. After WW2 antisemitism ensued with revised vigor (Wodak, 2011), even though Austria no longer had a Jewish population ("antisemitism without Jews": Benzl & Marin, 1983) and antisemitism was partially outlawed and officially frowned upon ("antisemitism without antisemites": Marin, 1980).Antisemitism manifests itself in the popular culture and in personal attitudes, in local and national politics and in the media - targeting a community numbering no more than 15,000. The latest Anti-Defamation League survey suggests that over a third of the Austrian adult population believes that "Jews have too much power in the business world" and nearly half the adult population agrees that "Jews have too much power in international financial markets" (ADL, 2015). Contrary to common belief, anti-Jewish sentiment is widespread, not confined to class, occupation, age or gender; and manifests itself in everyday language (Schwarz-Friesel and Reinharz, 2013). All available evidence suggests that antisemitic expressions are on the rise (EUFR, 2015) with figures nearly doubling in the past year (Moore, 2016). The President of the Jewish Communities in Austria described the situation as "terrifying" (op. cit.). At the time this course outline is being prepared, the prospects of another Austrian President of neo-Nazi sympathies being elected, seems highly possible (on the public discourse around the first Austrian President with a Nazi past - Kurt Waldheim, see for example Wodak 1991, Wodak and Matouschek, 1993).

Students will acquire the ability to identify, assess and study a topical under-researched, undeclared, undercover phenomenon such as is antisemitism. They will develop awareness to discriminatory behavior, its manifestations, implications and consequences. In the process they will learn how to design methodologies to study sensitive issues and the confidence to reflect critically on issues of equality, diversity and ethics.

This course has the character of a research workshop. Work is done interactively, in plenary sessions and in teams.Students will probe into actual and perceived workplace expressions of antisemitism, including: direct and indirect discrimination, verbal abuse, bullying; antisemitic attitudes and beliefs; xenophobia as a generalised worldview; antisemitic expressions in public discourse, as reflected in institutional policies and institutionalised antisemitism.

Students are graded on the basis of:- Rating of the seminar paper (50%) and presentation (35%) (both of these are group work),- Written course reflection (15%) (individual assessment)

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References:
Anti-Defamation League. ADL Global 100 (2015)Bunzl, J. and Marin, B. (1983) Antisemitismus in Österreich in Wodak, R. (1991)

EUFR EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. Antisemitism: Overview of data available in the European Union 2004–2014 (2015)

Federal Ministry of the Interior. Nature of recorded antisemitic offences in Austria 2009–2014., in EUFR (2015)

Marin, B. (1980) A post-Holocaust "anti-Semitism without anti-Semites"? Austria as a case in point." Political Psychology 2 (2), 57-74.

Moore, J. (2016) Dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Austria Newsweek Europe 04 July 2016

Schwarz - Friesel, M. u. Reinharz, J. (2013). Die Sprache der Judenfeindschaft im 21. Jahrhundert. Berlin: de Gruyter.

Wodak, R. (1991) Turning the tables: antisemitic discourse in post-war Austria. Discourse & Society, 2(1), 65-83.

Wodak, R. (2011). Suppression of the Nazi past, coded languages, and discourses of silence: Applying the discourse-historical approach to post-war anti-semitism in Austria, in Steinmetz, L. Political Languages in a Time of Extremes Oxford: Oxford University Press, 351-379.

Wodak, R., and Matouschek, B. (1993) "We are dealing with people whose origins one can clearly tell just by looking': critical discourse analysis and the study of neo-racism in contemporary Austria." Discourse & Society 4 (2), 225-248.