G. Daniel Cohen

senior fellow
EURIAS cohort 2017/2018
discipline History
Associate Professor, Department of History, Rice University

Research project

Second Emancipation: "Philosemitism" in Europe since 1945

 

My book project investigates the emergence of "philosemitism" in Western Europe after the Second World War. Despite many ambiguities, expressions of empathy towards Jews have challenged the exceptionality of the Jewish condition in European history. Yet while the literature on antisemitism is vast, there is not a single comprehensive study on the positive meanings of Jewishness in post-Holocaust Europe. In this book, I trace the evolution of "philosemitic" discourse and sentiment from 1945 to the present. As I demonstrate, the Jewish trope allowed prominent theologians, intellectuals and political figures to reconstruct European ethics in the second half of the 20th century. This movement did not hinder the persistence of anti-Semitism and at times reified old anti-Jewish themes under the cover of Judeophilia. It nonetheless laid the foundations for an unprecedented moral revolution in contemporary European history.

 

 

Biography

 

G. Daniel Cohen is Associate Professor at the Department of History at Rice University. He holds a Ph.D in History from the New York University. His main research interests are in modern European history, migration studies, and the history of humanitarianism and human rights. 

 

Selected publications

 

In War’s Wake: European Refugees in the Postwar Order, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011.

 

 'The 'Human Rights Revolution' at Work: Refugees and Displaced Persons in Postwar Europe', in S. L. Hoffmann & D. Gosewinkel (eds), Human Rights in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010, pp. 53-73.

 

'Between Relief and Politics: Refugee Humanitarianism in Post-War Europe', Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 43, no. 3, 2008, pp. 437-450.


'The Politics of Recognition: Jewish Refugees in Relief Policies and Human Rights Debates, 1945-1950', Immigrants and Minorities, vol. 24, no. 2, 2006, pp. 125-144.


'Remembering Postwar Displaced Persons: From Omission to Resurrection', in M. König & R. Ohliger (eds), Enlarging European Memory. Migration Movements in Historical Perspective, Thorbecke, Stuttgart, 2006, pp.87-97.

 

institut

senior fellow
EURIAS promotion 2013/2014
Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM)
discipline Political Science
2013
senior fellow
EURIAS promotion 2016/2017
Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM)
discipline Literature
2016
junior fellow
EURIAS promotion 2013/2014
Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM)
discipline Media
2013
junior fellow
EURIAS promotion 2017/2018
Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM)
discipline History
2017