The Research Network on Antisemitism in the 21st Century (FoNA21)

In 2019, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched the framework program Understanding Society – Shaping the Future for the humanities and social sciences and endowed it with 700 million euros for a funding period from 2019 to 2025. The goal of this framework program is to promote social cohesion through the transfer of knowledge based on interdisciplinary research; to strengthen the innovative potential of the humanities and social sciences in an international context; and to promote and preserve cultural life in Germany for future generations.

To this end, the funding program Current Dynamics and Challenges of Antisemitism was inaugurated in 2020, resulting in the support of ten collaborative projects and one “meta-project” (Metavorhaben, the coordinating entity of a BMBF-sponsored initiative) in 2021. Together they constitute the collaborative project The Research Network on Antisemitism in the 21st Century, also known as FoNA21.

The tasks of this research network are multifaceted: One objective is to make research groups’ methods and findings applicable to and implementable in civil society. Its other goal is to bring the affiliated research groups in FoNA21 and their diverse scholarly approaches into a productive exchange with one another.

The fundamental aim of the services and consulting offered by FoNA21 is to ensure that knowledge generated in the research groups is anchored in society. The project works to ensure that there is communication between scholarly work and societal actors. This, above all, includes political consulting: Throughout Germany, the research network arranges expert talks with representatives from the German Bundestag and state parliaments; antisemitism and integration officers in the state and federal governments; the attorney general’s offices; and the police.

The continued education of public authorities, government agencies, and institutions is another key concern of FoNA21. We address various groups of professionals, stakeholders, and experts who have a need for and interest in the latest research on how institutions such as the police, public authorities, Holocaust memorial sites, museums, and other cultural institutions face antisemitism. The first Summer University against Antisemitism will be held on September 19–20, 2022 in cooperation with the collaborative projects, and this program will also be offered in the coming years. It is aimed at teachers, staff members of memorial sites and museums, social workers, employees of non-governmental projects, public administrators, the police, and the armed forces. Through lectures and in-depth workshops, we would like to offer a program for continuing education and an opportunity for exchange between scholars and practitioners.

The second core mission of the research network is to build an infrastructure for rigorous scholarly exchange among principal investigators, doctoral students, and postdocs in each of the participating collaborative projects. FoNA21—in cooperation with the collaborative projects, practitioners, and the BMBF—will spearhead the development of strategic approaches for researching and monitoring antisemitism as a broader societal problem. The observations from these studies will be interdisciplinary, integrating both the quantitative and qualitative findings of the affiliated research projects.

Das Forschungsnetzwerk Antisemitismus im 21. Jahrhundert ist über die Förderlinie hinaus mit unterschiedlichen Akteuren vernetzt.

ALAVA - Arthur Langerman Archiv für die Erforschung des visuellen Antisemitismus

CoRE-NRW - Connecting Research on Extremism in North Rhine-Westphalia

Decoding Antisemitism - Forschungsprojekt zu Online Hate Speech/Imagery

DHM - Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin (Sammlung Wolfgang Haney)

DP-R/EX - Datenportal der Rassismus- und Rechtsextremismusforschung

Erfahrungsaustausch Rechtsextremismus des Dezernat Bildung, Integration, Kultur, Sport und Gleichstellung des Deutschen Städtetages

FGZ - Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt

KIgA - Kreuzberger Initiative gegen Antisemitismus

InRA - Institution und Rassismus - Studie (FGZ)

MMZ - Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum für europäisch-jüdische Studien (Praxispartner Meta-Vorhaben)

MOTRA - Monitoringsystem und Transferplattform Radikalisierung

RADIS - Forschung zum radikalen Islam in Deutschland und Europa

Sammlung Haney - Forschungsprojekt Der Sammler und seine Dinge

Verband Bildungsmedien e.V.

WinRa - Wissensnetzwerk Rassismusforschung

Wi-Rex - Wissensnetzwerk Rechtsextremismusforschung

Zentralrat der Juden - Jüdische Akademie

Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Förderlinie

Die Förderlinie „Aktuelle Dynamiken und Herausforderungen des Antisemitismus“ wird von einem wissenschaftlichen Beirat begleitet.

Prof. Dr. Sabine Achour, Freie Universität Berlin/Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft

Prof. Dr. Frank Bajohr, Institut für Zeitgeschichte München/Zentrum für Holocaust-Studien

Dr. Regina Fritz, Universität Bern/Historisches Institut

Prof. Dr. Andrea Löw, Institut für Zeitgeschichte München/Zentrum für Holocaust-Studien

Prof. Dr. Armin Pfahl-Traughber, Hochschule des Bundes für öffentliche Verwaltung, Brühl

Prof. Dr. Jan Weyand, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg/Institut für Soziologie

Prof. Dr. Christian Wiese, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main/Evangelische Theologie, Martin-Buber-Professur

Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Ziege, Universität Bayreuth/Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät

Framework program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF): Gesellschaft verstehen - Zukunft gestalten

Tender of the funding guideline: Aktuelle Dynamiken und Herausforderungen des Antisemitismus

Publikationen

LaG-Magazin vom 23. Februar 2022 (02/22)

Verschwörungsdenken in Geschichte und Gegenwart

Die Texte dieser Ausgabe stammen von Studierenden der Technischen Universität Berlin, die an einem Seminar zu Verschwörungsideologien von Dr. Marcus Funck teilgenommen haben.