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Research institute

The Parkes Institute

Creative Commons Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-S69279: Jewish refugees disembarking from a boat into London in 1939

We research, teach and raise awareness of relations between Jews and non-Jews, from antiquity to the present day. Our aims are to promote interfaith dialogue and fight against prejudice and antisemitism.

The Parkes Institute is a world-renowned centre of Jewish studies. We comprise scholars, archivists, librarians and students and are home to one of the largest Jewish archives in Europe. We specialise in Jewish history, the Ancient World, migration studies and Holocaust research and heritage. The institute hosts a wealth of Anglo-Jewish materials as well as the personal papers of our namesake, Reverend Dr James Parkes.

My research focuses on Judaism in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, with particular interest in the Jews of Egypt and Jewish thinker Philo of Alexandria.
Ian Karten Professor of Jewish Studies
I am interested in the cultural history of Jews in Belarus. My work places ‘peripheries’ and ‘small nations’ at the centre of Jewish East-European history.
My work focuses on identity and how those of migrant origin, especially Jews, define and represent themselves, and how they are responded to by others.
James Parkes Professor of History

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Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ

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