Beyond Black and White: The Dilemmas of Being a South African Jew

Shirli Gilbert, Professor of Modern Jewish History, UCL Department Hebrew and Jewish Studies, delivers her Inaugural Lecture: Beyond Black and White: The Dilemmas of Being a South African Jew

About the lecture

In this lecture, Shirli Gilbert will trace the journeys - musical and historical, emotional and intellectual - that have composed her professional life, from the east European shtetl to Jerusalem and Johannesburg to London via the American Midwest. Underlying everything are two watersheds of twentieth century history, the Holocaust and apartheid, whose legacies have both shaped the contours of her personal life and provide enduringly rich material for her historical research.

About the speaker

Shirli Gilbert teaches and researches in the area of modern Jewish history, with particular interest in the Holocaust and its legacies, modern Jewish identity, and Jews in South Africa. She holds a D. Phil in Modern History from the University of Oxford and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan. Before coming to UCL, she was Karten Professor of Modern History and Director of the Parkes Institute for Jewish/ non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton.

Image: Old Synagogue Paul Kruger Street Pretoria, 24 September 2013 © PHParsons

Inaugural Lecture Series 2019/20

This lecture is part of the 2019/20 series for UCL's Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences. The series provides an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our professors who are undertaking research and scholarship of international significance, and offers an insight into the strength and vitality of the arts, humanities and social sciences at UCL. 

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