“They’re undermining expertise and substituting it with ideology even though they claim to be doing exactly the opposite,” said Susan Glenn, a professor of history and faculty member in UW’s Jewish studies program.

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But the idea that the study of antisemitism requires new institutions that circumvent existing academic departments raises red flags for some. “What’s new are these institutional structures, this field-building around the idea of foregrounding antisemitism as a specific thing to be studied outside of a history department or a literature department or a religious studies department,” said Corwin Berman.

She said university administrators are largely responding to pressure, not to the needs of students or academic imperatives: “They’re making a public-facing performance about dealing with antisemitism – and the calculation is not being made through rigorous evaluation of scholarly expertise.”