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University of Washington

Home> People> Faculty

Padelford C-249
Phone: 206-616-3940
E-mail: taradel@u.washington.edu

Ruggero Taradel received his laurea as Doctor in Literature and Philosophy with high honors (cum laude) at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 1992 with the interdisciplinary dissertation Paul Tillich’s Hermeneutics in History of Christianity and Theoretical Philosophy.

He is presently Lecturer in the Division of French and Italian Studies, College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, where he has been teaching courses in Italian Cultural History, Church and State in Italy and Italian Language.

Publications

• The Holy See and the Racial Laws in Italy and Europe (La Santa Sede e le leggi razziali in Italia e in Europa). Race, Jurisprudence, Experiences. Seventy Years after the Racial Laws. To be published in June 2009.

•The Blood Libel between History and Legend. Reflections on the Toaff Case (L’accusa del sangue tra storia e leggenda. Riflessioni sul caso Toaff). Published in March 2007 on the website Morasha.

• Jacques Maritain and the Mystery of Israel (Jacques Maritain e il mistero d’ Israele). Published in three parts in the Italian Journal of Philosophy and Theology Dialeghestai (ISSN 1128-5478) between 2006 and 2007.

• Medium ex Machina, Hatred in the Times of Globalization, preface to the book The Web of Hatred (La rete dell’odio) by Marco Innamorati and Alessandro Rossi, Casini Editore, Roma, 2004.

• The Creation of the Enemy: Antisemitism, Islamophobia and War Racism (Antisemitismo, islamofobia e azzismo di guerra). Cultures for Peace (Culture per la Pace) G. Giannoli, P. Quintili eds., Manifestolibri, Roma, 2003).

• The Blood Libel: A Political History of an Anti-Semitic Myth, (L’accusa del sangue. Storia politica di un mito antisemita, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 2002). Library of Congress: BM 585. 2. T37 2002.

• The Amicable Segregation. The Civiltà Cattolica and the Jewish Question 1850-1945, (La segregazione amichevole. La Civiltà Cattolica e la questione ebraica 1850-1945, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 2000). Library of Congress: BM 535. T37 2000.

• Spinoza’s Criticism against the Concept of Miracle. Characteristics and Implications, (La critica di Spinoza al concetto di miracolo. Caratteristiche e implicazioni) SWIF: Sito Web Italiano di Filosofia, 1999.

• Antisemitism, the Church Forgets (Antisemitismo, La Chiesa rimuove), published on the Italian Journal Giano: Pace, Ambiente, Problemi Globali. N. 28, April 1998.

Lectures, Conferences

• Religion and Anti-Semitism. An Historian’s Journey. University of Washington, Seattle Campus, November 14, 2008.

• The Holy See and the Racial Laws in Italy and Europe: 1933-1943. Essay presented at the International Conference Race, Jurisprudence, Experiences. Seventy Years after the Racial Laws at the University of Catania (Italy). October 29-31, 2008.

• Here We Go Again: Berlusconi and the Second Republic. Joint lecture with professor Claudio Mazzola at the University of Washington Rome Center. May 7, 2008.

• A Methodological and Historical Analysis and Evaluation of Ariel Toaff’s research on Ritual Murder. Paper presented at the seminar: Writing Today on Jewish History. Scholars and Researchers Discuss with Ariel Toaff. Center for Italian and European Studies (CIES). Boston University, Padova, April 6, 2008.

• The Forgotten Revolt. Sobibor’s Extermination Camp in the History of the Shoah (La rivolta dimenticata. Il campo di sterminio di Sobibor nella storia della Shoah) Rome, Università di Tor Vergata. April 20, 2006

• The Catholic Church and Anti-Semitism in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Temple De Hirsch Sinai, Seattle, February 10, 2006

• Religious and Racial Hatred on the World Wide Web. Lecture and conversation with Marco Innamorati and Alessandro Rossi. Rome, July 29, 2005.

• Immigration, Racism and Islamophobia in Italy. Simpson Center for Humanities, University of Washington. Seattle, March 11, 2005.

• The Vatican and Modern and Contemporary Anti-Semitism, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, January 11, 2005.

• The Jew on Trial: In search of Mendel Beilis, as guest speaker of documentarist Albert Maysles for his presentation of the work in progress for a documentary on the Ritual murder Trial in Kiev in 1913. Safra Hall, Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. October 13, 2004.

• The Catholic Church and Anti-Semitism: Memory, History and Perspectives from the Italian and Vatican Archives. Simpson Center for Humanities, University of Washington, October 30, 2003.

• Paradigmi e stereotipi dell’antisemitismo contemporaneo (Paradigms and Stereotypes of Contemporary Antisemitism) University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, May 7, 2001.

• La nascita della Civiltà Cattolica e la polemica contro gli ebrei durante il pontificato di Pio IX. (The Birth of the Civiltà Cattolica and the Polemic against the Jews during the Pontificate of Pope Pius IX). Lecture given at the Conference on Pius IX organized by the Union of the Jewish Communities of Italy and by the National Library of History “Caetani” in Rome. June 27, 2000

• La Chiesa Cattolica e la “questione ebraica”, 1946-2000 (The Catholic Church and the “Jewish Question”, 1946-2000). Lecture given at the Conference “Jewish-Christian Relations. History, Thought, Perspectives” organized by the Collegio Rabbinico of Rome. 16 January 2000.

Interviews, Conversations

• Fosse Ardeatine. Remembrance and Historical Significance (Le fosse Ardeatine. Ricordo e significato storico). An interview with Vatican journalist Menichetti broadcasted by the Vatican Radio (Vatican City) on March 25, 2008.

• The Web of Hatred. An interview with the Italian State TV (RAI3) with Alessandro Rossi on Racism and Anti-semitism on the World Wide Web (May 3rd, 2007).

• A conversation with Thomas Toivi Blatt (Una conversazione con Thomas Toivi Blatt), January 8, 2006. An excerpt of this conversation and interview, edited by Barbara Raggi, has been published by the Italian national newspaper “La Repubblica” on January 28, 2006 as La mia fuga dall’orrore di Sobibor (My Escape from the Horror of Sobibor).

• A conversation with Albert Maysles on the Blood Libel accusation and the Beilis case. A three-hour conversation on the history of the Blood Libel. New York, March 10, 2005. The interview has been filmed and it will be part of the documentary The Jew on Trial by Albert Maysles.

• The Day of Remembrance. Joint interview with Cardinal Jean Lustiger, former Archbishop of Paris, and Rav Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community of Rome broadcasted by Radio Vaticana, (Vatican City) on January 27, 2005.

• Neanche la Chiesa cambiò Pacelli “Liberazione”, December 29, 2004. An interview on a recently discovered and published letter sent by the Vatican Secretariat of State to Giovanni Maria Roncalli (future Pope John the XXIII) in 1946 on the policy for Jewish children who survived the Holocaust.

• L’antisemitismo ci fu, perché negarlo? “Liberazione”, March, 17, 2002. A defense of David Kertzer’s book The Popes Against the Jews. See also Giovanni Sales’ reply, Mea Culpa con molti però, Liberazione April 3, 2002.

• La novità nel gesto, non nelle parole “Liberazione” March 24, 2000. An analysis and evaluation of Pope John Paul II visit to Jerusalem and Yad Vashem in 2000.

Translations

• Consultant and supervisor for the English version of Leonardo Distaso’s book The Paadox of Existence: Philosophy and Aesthetics in the Young Schelling, Kluwer Academic Publications (London-Amsterdam), 2004.

Ongoing Projects

a) Books, essays

• Revised and updated edition of the book L’accusa del sangue. Storia Politica di un mito antisemita to be published in 2009.

• A Beautiful Desolation. Naples at War 1940-1946. A book on the city of Naples during the Second World War.

• Darwin and The Jesuits. In collaboration with Daniele Cozzoli. A study of the cultural policy carried out by the Societas Iesu and Jesuits scholars concerning Darwin and Darwinism in the XIX and the XX century.

• Il Fondo dell’ Abisso. L’Aktion Reinhard e la Soluzione Finale. (The Bottom of the Abyss. Aktion Reinhard and the Final Solution). In collaboration with Barbara Raggi. A comprehensive study on the destruction of Jewry in Poland and its post-war implications.

• Dystopia and Contemporary Culture. In collaboration with Marco Innamorati and Alessandro Rossi. A study of the impact of Negative Utopias in the XX and XXI centuries in Literature, Politics and Culture.

• The Problem of the Existence of God and the Trinitarian Dogma in Paul Tillich’s Theology. An essay on the most important aspects and implications of Paul Tillich’s work on the philosophical interpretation on fundamental Christian dogmas. To be published by the Journal of Philosophy and Theology Dialegesthai (ISSN 1128-5478) in 2009.

b) Translations

• Translation into Italian of Thomas Toivi Blatt’s book From the Ashes of Sobibor. A History of Survival (Northwestern University Press, 1997) into Italian.

• Translation into English of Alfonso di Nola’s book Lo specchio e l’olio. Le superstizioni degli Italiani (Bari, Laterza, 1992)

c) Documentaries

Ruggero Taradel has been collaborating as history consultant with legendary filmmaker Albert Maysles (Director of Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Lalee’s Kin: the Legacy of Cotton and many other documentaries) for the realization of the documentary The Jew on Trial on the ritual murder trial in Kiev in 1913.

Ruggero Taradel’s research has been widely reviewed the Italian national press (Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Il Manifesto etc. and by the officious Journal of the Holy See La Civiltà Cattolica) and described by the foremost Church historian Father Giacomo Martina S. J. as an “acute analysis” and a “well informed and substantially objective” research on the Anti-Semitic tradition of the Catholic Church. Rav Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Rome welcomed the “extreme precision and accuracy” of his research as a “painstakingly accurate critical work”.

The Amicable Segregation (La segregazione amichevole) and The Blood Libel (L’accusa del sangue) are now both considered as some of the most authoritative studies on the subject, they have been both adopted as textbooks by several Italian universities (e.g. Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Università di Reggio Emilia etc.) and they are often quoted and listed in the essential bibliography in academic publications in Italy, France, Great Britain and in the United States by historians and scholars such as David Kertzer, Giovanni Miccoli, Adriano Prosperi, Michele Sarfatti, Favret-Saada etc.

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