Research Profile

I am a historian with a background in cultural studies, working at the intersections of the history of antisemitism, gender history, cultural and intellectual history, and social philosophy. My work is shaped not only by historical research and its methods, but also by critical theory—from the Frankfurt School in its many strands to post-structuralist and feminist theoretical formations, including the work of Joan Wallach Scott, Iris Marion Young, and Donna Haraway.

At the center of my work are the historical discourse analysis of fields of knowledge and conflict, the study of feminist theoretical formations, and theoretical reflections on categories such as gender within antisemitism research. I consciously move within the tension between cultural-historical inquiry and social-theoretical reflection. I am interested in how specific historical epistemic spaces emerge and are contested, under what conditions theoretical concepts gain traction, and which discursive possibilities are opened or foreclosed within these sites of conflict. I am equally drawn to the entangled and affective dimensions of these processes of contestation.

Current Project

My doctoral project, “Antisemitism and Its Critique in Feminist Movements in the U.S. and West Germany since 1970,” combines methods of historical discourse analysis with actor-centered approaches and transnational entangled history (Verflechtungsgeschichte).

The study examines antisemitism in (West) German and U.S. feminist movements between 1970 and 2001—a phenomenon that has thus far received only fragmentary scholarly attention—from a transnational, cultural, and gender-historical perspective. Through historical discourse analysis of journals, anthologies, conference reports, and gray literature from the German and U.S. women’s and lesbian movements, it investigates how antisemitic resentments were articulated, legitimized, or criticized and rejected across different contexts; how antisemitism was conceptualized and understood; and what role other structural categories such as gender, race, and class played in this regard. This structural and discourse-analytical dimension—reconstructing specific fields of knowledge and conflict—is complemented by an actor-centered approach that traces the agency and impact of antisemitism’s critics, often Jewish, within feminist movement contexts.

Scholarly Contribution

The study addresses a twofold research gap: historical antisemitism scholarship has long given only sporadic attention to gender-specific perspectives, while antisemitism has remained underexamined as a relevant site of conflict in the historiography of feminist movements.

Rather than reading these negotiations as a teleological story of collective learning and progressive enlightenment, the study brings out the profound ambivalences and ruptures that characterize these historical developments.

In doing so, the analysis of structural dimensions within antisemitism-related discourses is systematically interwoven with an actor-centered perspective. The study foregrounds the identity-political and standpoint-theoretical interventions of marginalized feminists and their agency. Since the 1970s, Jewish, lesbian, Black, and other marginalized actors brought their specific experiences into feminist debates, increasingly challenging the concept of a “universal sisterhood.” Their particular modes of critique, the study shows, contributed significantly to the pluralization of feminist self-understandings and addressed critical blind spots in feminist knowledge production.

Academic Context

A central context for the empirical and conceptual grounding of this transnational project was my fellowship at the Department of History at Harvard University in the spring of 2022. This stay enabled the systematic exploration of archival materials from the U.S. context and the discussion of the entangled-history dimensions of my research within a stimulating international scholarly environment.

Selected Publications

  • Christian Kleindienst, “Antisemitismus und Geschlecht – Zur Integration und Kritik antisemitischer Ressentiments in der (West-)deutschen und US-amerikanischen Frauenbewegung (1970–2001)”, in: Antisemitismus zwischen Kontinuität und Adaptivität, Göttingen 2022, 121–136.
  • Christian Kleindienst, “Antijudaismus-Debatten in feministischen Bewegungskontexten der Bundesrepublik und den USA”, in: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte, forthcoming.

For a detailed documentary overview of my academic background, research interests, teaching, fellowships, and memberships, please refer to the CV section.