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Mohamed S. Farsi-Lindenbaum Associate Professor of Jewish-Muslim Relations
Tel: 020 7679 2766
Biography
Seth Anziska is the Mohamed S. Farsi-Lindenbaum Associate Professor of Jewish-Muslim Relations at University College London, where he is the founding director of the Middle East Research Centre. His research and teaching focuses on modern Middle Eastern history, Israeli and Palestinian society and culture, and contemporary Arab and Jewish politics.
He is the author of Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo (Princeton University Press, 2018; Arabic edition, Institute for Palestine Studies, 2022), which was awarded the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies Book Prize. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, +972 Magazine, and the 55th Venice Biennale.
Seth received his PhD in International and Global History with distinction from Columbia University, his M. Phil. in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and his BA in history from Columbia University. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Norwegian Nobel Institute and visiting professor at Dartmouth College, and has held fellowships at New York University, the London School of Economics, and the American University of Beirut.
Research
Seth’s research is focused on the international history of the Middle East in the 20th century, particularly Israel and Palestine, Lebanon, and US relations with the wider region. His first book, Preventing Palestine, examined the emergence of the 1978 Camp David Accords and the consequences of international diplomacy in circumscribing Palestinian self-determination. He is also interested in archival practices and visual culture of the Middle East, as well as the legacy of Arab-Jewish encounters in Europe and the Levant.
Current projects include an international history of Israel’s 1982 Lebanon War, which explores the possibility and limitations of historical research across national borders given the afterlife of political violence. His research has been supported by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, and his work has appeared in Humanity Journal, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, the Jewish Quarterly Review, and the Journal of Palestine Studies. He is a member of the editorial board of the Statelessness and Citizenship Review.
Teaching
- History of the Modern Middle East
- Israel and Palestine
- Jewish-Muslim Relations in the Modern Middle East
- Sources, Methods, Skills
Public Engagement
Seth is a visiting fellow at the U.S./Middle East Project, and his research into the history of US-Israeli relations and Palestinian statelessness has informed policy discussions about political horizons for Israel and Palestine with diplomats in the US and Europe, and Israeli and Palestinian officials.
His uncovering of vital new sources about the 1978 Camp David Accords and the 1982 Lebanon War has led to the publication of over 400 pages of primary material as an online archival resource in The New York Review of Books (‘Sabra and Shatila: New Revelations’), the Institute for Palestine Studies, Al-Akhbar, and Jadaliyya.
Seth’s historical work on Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 catalyzed a collaboration with the Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari and an accompanying text for Zaatari’s Letter to a Refusing Pilot (2013), a mixed media installation first presented in the Lebanese Pavilion of the 55th Venice Biennale.
He has been interviewed for France 3’s television documentary ‘Camp David: le prix de la paix’; Lebanon’s L’Orient Le Jour; Switzerland’s Le Temps; and the Toynbee Prize Foundation, among others.
From 2020-2021, Seth chaired UCL’s Academic Board Working Group on Racism and Prejudice and he was a member of the coordinating group of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.
Recent public presentations include:
- September 2022: Book Launch for the Arabic edition of Preventing Palestine with Professor Rashid Khalidi (Institute for Palestine Studies), YouTube.
- May 2022: Roundtable Reflections on ‘Defining Antisemitism between History and Politics’ (Van Leer Institute), YouTube.
- September 2018: In Conversation with Peter Beinart (Occupied Thoughts Podcast), Foundation for Middle East Peace.
- September 2018: ‘Preventing Palestine: How 40 Years of U.S.-Led Peacemaking Have Failed the Palestinians’ (Middle East Institute), YouTube.
Visit Dr Seth Anziska's full profile for additional information, publications, and achievements.