On September 18, 2025, the ABI welcomed Udi Raz, doctoral fellow with the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, for an equity & diversity workshop of the Emmy Noether Group ‘The Political Economy of Solar Energy in the Middle East and North Africa’. Raz is currently finalising her PhD thesis on ‘Queers as in ‘Semites’: Redefining Otherness in today’s Germany’. She is a regular public speaker on Jewish identity, Palestine solidarity, and increasing repression in the name of fighting antisemitism.
In the workshop ‘Race, Religion and Germany’, Raz explored, by applying queer theory, how particular definitions of antisemitism are weaponised to further anti-Palestinian repression. Based on a historic overview of the Zionist movement and contemporary case studies, Raz deconstructed Eurocentric ideas of ‘religion’ and ‘race’ as separate categories.
In doing so, Raz illustrated how queer and decolonial thinking enables a better understanding of the contemporary German discourse on anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim racism, and nationalism.