This letter from the Research Network 31 “Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism” to the ESA President and Executive Committee was discussed during the Research Networks Business Meeting in Porto and was later approved by the RN31 Coordinators and Board.

Dear Kaja Gadowska, President of the European Sociological Association,

Dear members of the Executive Committee,

We, the Research Network 31 on “Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism”, are disturbed by the opening plenary of this year’s ESA conference in Porto. It contained a lecture on MENA issues given by a colleague whose area of expertise is not the MENA region. We are particularly disturbed by the jokes and tropes woven into Michael Burawoy’s opening plenary, which, for example, turned the idea of the “chosen people” into a series of punch lines. He drew on an antisemitic Christian tradition of ignorantly reinterpreting Jewish theology to turn it against Jews.

Even more disturbing is the fact that many members of the ESA joined in the laughter.

We, as scholars of antisemitism, ethnicity and racism, both  non-Jewish and Jewish, are concerned  by the underlying antisemitism that so casually surfaced in a large room full of our professional colleagues.

Tackling this issue seriously is a challenge. It requires the profession to look at itself using some of the unique and revealing methods it has developed for looking at others.

We urge you, the new President and members of the ESA Executive Committee, to initiate a process of reflection and education on this issue within the organization.

We are willing to discuss further ways of addressing these issues in order to re-establish the ESA as an open space for intellectual and theoretical discussion for all members without fear of discrimination.

Kim Robin Stoller (Coordinator), Elke Rajal (Co-Coordinator)
(Research Network 31: “Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism”)