Eline van Erdewijk MA

PhD candidate

E-mail: e.a.c.van.erdewijk@rug.nl

Area(s) of interest: Colonialism & Postcolonialism, Languages & Literature, Political History, Transnational History

Cohort/Start PhD: 2023-2024

European Racial Antisemitism in settler-colonial Algeria from the Crémieux Decree (1870) until World War I (1918): A comparative analysis among European populations

University of Groningen
Supervisor(s): Prof. Karène Sanchez Summerer and Dr. Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah
Starting date: 1 February 2024

In her PhD, Eline investigates the emergence of racial antisemitism among the European population in French Algeria from the Crémieux Decree (1870) until World War I (1918). Her study offers a comparative analysis of the diverse European populations by critically examining the popular press and consular archives in French, Spanish, and Italian. To date, there has been no analysis of how various ethnic origins contributed to antisemitism among Europeans in Algeria. Eline’s research will analyze how the diverse origins of European populations in Algeria, as they “integrated” into colonial society, attempted to form a cohesive identity described as “the new white Latin race.” This process, rooted in colonial legacies of supremacy, significantly contributed to the emergence of racism, discrimination, and antisemitism in Algérie française.