ISCA Early Career Speaker Series, Session Five: Antisemitism in Progressive and Academic Contexts

November 12, 2025.

“The Gentileman’s Agreement: Patterns Between Misogyny and Antisemitism” - Talia Rockman

This talk explores the structural parallels between misogyny and antisemitism, and the related valuation of women and Jews for their symbolic and material service, rather than as human beings. Through secondary data analysis of interviews with Jewish faculty members on Canadian campuses, from the “Faculty Experiences of Antisemitism Research” project, led by Deidre Butler (Carelton University) and Cary Kogan (Ottawa University), I examine this asymmetrical moral contract, termed The Gentileman’s Agreement, and its implications for how Jewish faculty navigate the stigma of being Jewish on Canadian campuses.

Talia Rockman is an MA candidate in Sociology at the University of Ottawa and holds a B.A. (Hon.) in Psychology from the University of Guelph. She has held Research Assistant roles for several projects related to the impact of antisemitism on Canadian campuses, including in the context of EDI, faculty unions, and academic freedom and mental health. She has presented her theoretical framework on the structural parallels between misogyny and antisemitism, and chaired panels, at the 2025 Conference for Contemporary Antisemitism in London and at the 2025 Brock University Antisemitism Symposium. Talia intends to pursue doctoral work where she will continue to research contemporary antisemitism.

“Examining Antisemitism in Antizionist Academic Discourse” - Perla Matusof

This presentation applies a discourse-analytic approach, grounded in the Decoding Antisemitism classification system, to examine how antisemitic rhetoric is embedded and legitimized in academic discourse, particularly in anti-Israel context. An analysis of a corpus of ten texts authored by academics reveals patterns of classic antisemitism, academic camouflage, epistemic pseudo-science, and rhetorical moralization. By mapping these patterns, the study offers empirically grounded tools for distinguishing legitimate criticism from coded antisemitic discourse and sheds light on the institutional mechanisms that normalize such expression within the academy.

Perla Matusof is a doctoral researcher at Brock University, specializing in contemporary antisemitism in academic and institutional contexts. Her research integrates discourse analysis and psycholinguistic tools to differentiate between antisemitic rhetoric and legitimate critique, with particular attention to its impact on Jewish students and academics. Her academic background includes studies at Université Paris 8 and Brock University. She is actively involved in educational and community initiatives addressing Holocaust memory, Jewish identity, and antisemitism in Canada. She is also a research fellow with the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

Music: "Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/