About the Project
The project started with the hypothesis that while overt expressions of antisemitic ideas have been suppressed from the public sphere in the West after the Holocaust, the phenomenon has not disappeared but has shifted to less visible areas and contexts. In the project, this shift is conceptualized as "communication latency."
Through three overarching parts, the project investigated relevant arenas for public discourse and social interaction (new media, public debates, and education).
Based on extensive quantitative data accompanied by numerous qualitative studies, the project explored the forms and manifestations of antisemitism in contemporary Norway, including the contexts in which these attitudes are expressed, regulated, and transformed. Additionally, the project examined how the concept of antisemitism is negotiated in public debate and the ways in which it has become a tool for legitimizing and delegitimizing social and political actors and positions.
The project contributed knowledge about the prevalence and acceptance of antisemitic attitudes in contemporary Norway, specifically aiming to answer the overarching question of whether and in what ways the boundaries of "what can be said about Jews" have changed in recent years.
The goal was for the project's results to serve as a reference point and a resource for civil society, as well as for local and national authorities in Norway and internationally, in the work against antisemitism, prejudice, and discrimination.
Leadership and Partners
Project Leader: Christhard Hoffmann (The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies / University of Bergen)
Project Coordinator: Vibeke Moe (The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies)
Reference Group
Prof. Lars Dencik (Roskilde University), Prof. David Feldman (Birkbeck University of London), Prof. em. Irene Levin (Oslo and Akershus University), Prof. Kyrre Kverndokk (University of Bergen), Dr. Alice Pettigrew (University College London, Centre for Holocaust Education), Dr. Kjetil Simonsen (Jewish Museum in Oslo), Dr. Juliane Wetzel (Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University, Berlin), Prof. em. Ruth Wodak (University of Lancaster/Vienna).
Other collaborators
Jewish Museum in Oslo and Trondheim, Jewish Cultural Festival in Trondheim, Forum for Living History (Stockholm), and the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism (SKMA, Stockholm), POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw), and the school project DEMBRA (Democratic Preparedness Against Racism and Antisemitism, The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies).
Activities
Anthology published in 2020 In spring 2020, Universitetsforlaget published the anthology "The Shifting Boundaries of Prejudice – Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Contemporary Norway," presenting key findings from the research project. The anthology provides a comprehensive picture of antisemitism and Islamophobia in contemporary Norway for the first time.
Old Hatred in New Media. Antisemitism in Contemporary Norway
The sub-project Old Hatred in New Media: Antisemitism in Contemporary Norway aims to generate new knowledge about how the rise of digital media has facilitated the spread of antisemitic ideas in the Norwegian public sphere. Prejudices and hostility towards Jews have deep historical roots in Europe, and even though antisemitism was discredited from the political and public sphere after the Holocaust, it still exists in various forms. For example, we know that over eight percent of the Norwegian population has pronounced prejudices against Jews (Hoffmann & Moe eds., 2017), but we know little about where such ideas are expressed. Studies have suggested that social media and comment sections are important arenas for the spread of antisemitism today, but this has been little researched.
In this project, Birgitte P. Haanshuus examines how various antisemitic ideas are expressed and the boundaries of antisemitic hate speech in digital media associated with a range of political actors from the far right to the far left. Read the 2021 article "Recontextualising the news: How antisemitic discourses are constructed in extreme far-right alternative media."
Experiences, challenges, and opportunities in teaching about the Holocaust in Norwegian schools
The sub-project Experiences, challenges, and opportunities in teaching about the Holocaust in Norwegian schools, conducted by Vidar Fagerheim Kalsås, explores the significance of the Holocaust in Norwegian schools, illuminated through two sub-studies. One study is an interview study of social studies and history teachers' teaching methods, experiences, and reflections on the Holocaust. The study will shed light on both the challenges and opportunities that teachers perceive the Holocaust brings to the classroom, as well as the extent to which teachers assess the theme in light of contemporary societal issues such as racism, antisemitism, and democracy education.
The second study is a narrative study of current and upcoming textbooks in social studies and history. The starting point for the study is the curriculum reform Fagfornyelsen, where the Holocaust is explicitly mentioned in the curricula for social studies and history for the first time. The central question in this investigation is which narratives about the Holocaust are conveyed through the textbooks and in what ways these narratives have changed. Overall, the project will generate new knowledge about the purposes, significance, and position of the Holocaust as a teaching theme in Norwegian schools.
Master's Theses
In the period 2020-2021, two master's projects were associated with Shifting Boundaries:
Eliana Hercz wrote about antisemitism in digital media and how the boundary of what is accepted is influenced by the use of memes. The thesis Antisemitism that suits you – What factors can make antisemitic memes more palatable and what happens before the filter kicks in? was submitted to the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, in the fall of 2021.
Joy Davidsen analyzed antisemitic expressions in the public debate about circumcision. The thesis Prehistoric abuse of infants": The circumcision debate in Norwegian newspapers and the othering of Jews was submitted in the summer of 2021 to the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oslo.
The research project Shifting Boundaries: Definitions, Expressions, and Consequences of Antisemitism in Contemporary Norway was funded by the Research Council of Norway (SAMKUL program). The project period was from November 1, 2017, to October 31, 2021.