Since university students across the USA began protesting against Israel’s current war on Gaza, antisemitism on college campuses has become a major political issue, with far-reaching consequences. In this talk, Dov Waxman will ask: Is antisemitism widespread at universities and colleges in the US, as many now believe? Is the Trump administration genuinely committed to combating campus antisemitism? What are the implications for academic freedom and free speech on campus? In addressing these questions, Professor Waxman will consider not only the problem of antisemitism on US campuses but also how it has become a subject for political intervention and controversy.
Dov Waxman is the Gilbert Foundation Professor of Israel Studies and a professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at BISA. From 2020-2024, he served as the director of UCLA’s Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. He is the author of four books: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2019), Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (Princeton University Press, 2016), Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and The Pursuit of Peace and The Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending/Defining the Nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).