The articles collected in this Spring 2009 (VII, 2) issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge entitled “Historicizing Anti-Semitism” were part of an international conference entitled, “The Post-September 11 New Ethnic/Racial Configurations in Europe and the United States: The Case of Anti-Semitism,” organized by Lewis Gordon and Ramón Grosfoguel at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH) in Paris on June 29–30, 2007. Part of a series inaugurated by a discussion on Islamophobia, they brought a majority Jewish group of scholars together in the hope of bringing to the forum a critical exchange and conversation among the participants. The articles gathered here do not represent a unified voice but those often unheard in discussions of anti-Semitism. The focus on anti-Semitism in this collection raises the question of how ancient and Medieval versions of anti-Jewish practices should be interpreted, especially since even the term “Semite” came about as an effort in eighteenth-century French and German scholarship to organize Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew under a single linguistic nomenclature, which was crystallized in the nineteenth century in the work of the French scholar Ernest Renan. Contributors include: Lewis R. Gordon (also as journal issue guest editor), Ramón Grosfoguel (also as journal issue guest editor), Eric Mielants (also as journal issue guest editor), David Ost, James Cohen, Santiago E. Slabodsky, Rabson Wuriga, Walter Mignolo, Ramón Grosfoguel, Marc H. Ellis, Etienne Balibar, Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Martine Chard-Hutchinson, Michael Löwy, Jean-Paul Rocchi and Mohammad H. Tamdgidi (also as journal editor-in-chief). Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge is a publication of OKCIR: The Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research in Utopia, Mysticism, and Science (Utopystics). For more information about OKCIR and other issues in its journal’s Edited Collection as well as Monograph and Translation series visit OKCIR’s homepage.

The articles collected in this Spring 2009 (VII, 2) issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge entitled "Historicizing Anti-Semitism" were part of an international conference entitled, "The Post-September 11 New Ethnic/Racial Configurations in Europe and the United States: The Case of Anti-Semitism," organized by Lewis Gordon and Ramon Grosfoguel at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (MSH) in Paris on June 29-30, 2007. Part of a series inaugurated by a discussion on Islamophobia, they brought a majority Jewish group of scholars together in the hope of bringing to the forum a critical exchange and conversation among the participants. The articles gathered here do not represent a unified voice but those often unheard in discussions of anti-Semitism. The focus on anti-Semitism in this collection raises the question of how ancient and Medieval versions of anti-Jewish practices should be interpreted, especially since even the term "Semite" came about as an effort in eighteenth-century French and German scholarship to organize Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew under a single linguistic nomenclature, which was crystallized in the nineteenth century in the work of the French scholar Ernest Renan. Contributors include: Lewis R. Gordon (also as journal issue guest editor), Ramon Grosfoguel (also as journal issue guest editor), Eric Mielants (also as journal issue guest editor), David Ost, James Cohen, Santiago E. Slabodsky, Rabson Wuriga, Walter Mignolo, Ramon Grosfoguel, Marc H. Ellis, Etienne Balibar, Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Martine Chard-Hutchinson, Michael Lowy, Jean-Paul Rocchi and Mohammad H. Tamdgidi (also as journal editor-in-chief). Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge is a publication of OKCIR: The Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research in Utopia, Mysticism, and Science (Utopystics). For more information about OKCIR and other issues in its journal's Edited Collection as well as Monograph and Translation series visit OKCIR's homepage."

Historicizing Theory provides the first serious examination of contemporary theory in relation to the various twentieth-century historical and political contexts out of which it emerged. Theory—a broad category that is often used to encompass theoretical approaches as varied as deconstruction, New Historicism, and postcolonialism—has often been derided as a mere "relic" of the 1960s. In order to move beyond such a simplistic assessment, the essays in this volume examine such important figures as Harold Bloom, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Stephen Greenblatt, and Edward Said, situating their work in a variety of contexts inside and outside of the 1960s, including World War II, the Holocaust, the Algerian civil war, and the canon wars of the 1980s. In bringing us face-to-face with the history of theory, Historicizing Theory recuperates history for theory and asks us to confront some of the central issues and problems in literary studies today.

Deciphering the New Antisemitism addresses the increasing prevalence of antisemitism on a global scale. Antisemitism takes on various forms in all parts of the world, and the essays in this wide-ranging volume deal with many of them: European antisemitism, antisemitism and Islamophobia, antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel. Contributors are an international group of scholars who clarify the cultural, intellectual, political, and religious conditions that give rise to antisemitic words and deeds. These landmark essays are noteworthy for their timeliness and ability to grapple effectively with the serious issues at hand.

Contents:-Editor?s Note: Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Course Topic as well as a Pedagogical Strategy-Deborah D?Isabel: The ?Difference? A Red Face Makes: A Critical Sociology of Bullying in Capitalist Society-Claudia Contreras: The Tension of Opposites: Issues of Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in My Identity Formation-Katherine Heller: My Choice of a Lifetime: ?Finding True Love? in a Sociological Imagination-Rebecca Tink: Beyond Bifurcation: Femininity and Professional Success in a Changing World-Caitlin Farren: A Different Voice, A Different Autobiography: Letting My Authentic Voice Speak-Charles Chear: The Overdose of Shame: A Sociological and Historical Self-Exploration-Harold Muriaty: My Life So Far: A ?Work? in Progress-Rachel A. DeFilippis: Intersections of My Lesbian, Feminist, and Activist Identities: Problems and Strategies in Everyday Impression Management-Lee Kang Woon: Socialization of Transnationally Adopted Korean Americans: A Self Analysis-N.I.B.: ?Housing Project? In Comparative Perspective: Opportunity or Stigma?-Sharon Brown: Religion, Gender, and Patriarchy: Awakening to My Self-Conscious Resocialization-Jennifer Lambert: Beyond the ?Goods Life?: Mass Consumerism, Conflict, and the Latchkey-Kid-Anonymous: Hooped Dreams: Internal Growth, External Stagnation, and One Man?s Search for Work-Jorge Capetillo-Ponce: Contrasting Simmel?s and Marx?s Ideas on Alienation-Mohammad Tamdgidi: Working Outlines for the Sociology of Self-KnowledgeMacalester College Symposium:-Khaldoun Samman: Sociology of Self-Knowledge at Macalester College-Ellen Corrigan: The ?Out? Crowd: Resisting the Stereotypes of High School and Teen Culture-Jeremy Cover: My Performed Identity-Jesse Mortenson: Identity Resistance and Market-based Political Culture at a Small Liberal Arts School-Khaldoun Samman: Go West Young Turk: Personal Encounters with Kemalism-Jessica Sawyer: Confessions of a Maine-iac: The Family, Academia, and Modernity

If there was one person who could be said to light the touch-paper for the epochal transformation of European religion and culture that we now call the Reformation, it was Martin Luther. And Luther and his followers were to play a central role in the Protestant world that was to emerge from the Reformation process, both in Germany and the wider world. In all senses of the term, this religious pioneer was a huge figure in European history. Yet there is also the very uncomfortable but at the same time undeniable fact that he was an anti-semite. Written by one of the world's leading authorities on the Reformation, this is the vexed and sometimes shocking story of Martin Luther's increasingly vitriolic attitude towards the Jews over the course of his lifetime, set against the backdrop of a world in religious turmoil. A final chapter then reflects on the extent to which the legacy of Luther's anti-semitism was to taint the Lutheran church over the following centuries. Scheduled for publication on the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation's birth, in light of the subsequent course of German history it is a tale both sobering and ominous in equal measure.

“Wilderson’s thinking teaches us to believe in the miraculous even as we decry the brutalities out of which miracles emerge”—Fred Moten Praised as “a trenchant, funny, and unsparing work of memoir and philosophy” (Aaron Robertson,?Literary Hub), Frank B. Wilderson’s Afropessimism arrived at a moment when protests against police brutality once again swept the nation. Presenting an argument we can no longer ignore, Wilderson insists that we must view Blackness through the lens of perpetual slavery. Radical in conception, remarkably poignant, and with soaring flights of memoir, Afropessimism reverberates with wisdom and painful clarity in the fractured world we inhabit.“Wilderson’s ambitious book offers its readers two great gifts. First, it strives mightily to make its pessimistic vision plausible. . . . Second, the book depicts a remarkable life, lived with daring and sincerity.”—Paul C. Taylor, Washington Post