Research Seminar- Ambivalent Liberalism

December 11, 2017
Dr. Airoldi1

On Monday (11th of December), The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism invited the acedemic public to a research seminar on Ambivalent Liberalism: Benedetto Croce and the Jewish Question in Italy (1903-1952). The speaker was Dr. Sara Airoldi, a Felix Posen post-doctoral fellow at The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.

Using the philosophical and political thought of the prominent Italian intellectual Benedetto Croce, the lecture seeked to address the fundamental question of how anti-Jewish prejudice can exist alongside a philosphy of reason and within a liberal ideological frame. The "Jew", Dr. Airoldi demonstrates, embodies the epistemological "Other", essential for the definition of the national master narrative. This raises a fundamental theoretical question about liberalism and its limits, namely its capacity to reconcile universalism with cultural difference. 

The seminar was chaird by Prof. Manuela Consonni, the director of The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.

Research Seminar- Dr. Sara Airoldi

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