Symposium on Jewish-Muslim Entanglements

With emerging societal divisions and reshaped university policies on academic freedom, inclusivity, and dialogue, Jewish and Muslim students, faculty, and staff are facing increasing polarization, hostility, and institutional challenges. This symposium seeks to reframe these tensions by exploring the deep, intertwined histories of Jewish and Muslim communities—histories marked by both collaboration and conflict. By drawing on these shared pasts, we aim to develop strategies that foster inclusivity, combat racism, and reduce ethnic and religious intolerance in academic spaces. 

The symposium will consist of four sessions that focus on Judeo-Muslim Entanglements in the Middle Ages; Jewish-Muslim Life in the Present; Interrogating Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Blackness; and Zionism and the Christian Right. The papers presented in the symposium will be developed into short book chapters that will be published as an edited volume (anticipated as a contribution to the "Darom: Global Self-Perspectives in Jewish Studies" series at Wayne State University Press). The editors will be Mostafa Hussein, Bryan K. Roby, Adi Saleem, and Rebecca Wollenberg.