Project Description
Between 1919 and 1923, antisemitic students violently campaigned for student control of European universities in at least eleven different countries. They attacked Jews, harassed professors and rectors, and in many cases succeeded in closing university campuses. Many of these students later became pivotal members of fascist movements allowing us to connect grassroots antisemitism to the rise of fascism in the region. This project examines the wave of antisemitic riots as a connected, transnational history for the first time, focusing not only on the students but also on the previously invisible networks of supporters – parents, wives, alumni, professors, journalists and political activists – who made their movements possible.
Personal Bio
Roland Clark is a Reader in Modern European History at the University of Liverpool (UK). His research focuses on fascist movements, antisemitism, religion, theology, and the Holocaust in East-Central Europe, especially in Romania. He has written Holy Legionary Youth: Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania (2015), Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania: The Limits of Orthodoxy and Nation-Building (2021) and edited European Fascist Movements: A Sourcebook (2022) as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. He hosts on the New Books Network podcast and publishes in Fair Observer, Open Democracy, and Rantt Media.