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 has a Jewish population of any significance ("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 at most 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 year on year (Moore, 2016).

Students will acquire the knowledge how to study covert and under-researched issues at work, through the lens of antisemitic attitudes and behavior in Austria. They will develop awareness to discriminatory behavior, its manifestations, implications and consequences. In the process they will learn how to design and execute methodologies exporing sensitive issues and build the confidence to reflect critically on issues of equality, diversity and ethics.

≥ 80%

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); and written course reflection (15%) (individual assessment)

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