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Ishay Landa, Associate Professor

Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies One University Road P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:972-9-7781085 Email:ishayla@openu.ac.il

Areas of Interest
  • Modern History
  • Popular Culture
  • Study of modern ideologies: Marxism, liberalism, fascism

2004
Ph.D. (summa cum laude), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. Dissertation: "Nietzschean Heroism in 20th Century Popular Culture"
1999
M.A. Studies in General History, direct track to Ph.D., Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
1996
B.A. (with distinction), History and Foreign Literatures, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2017-present
Associate Professor of History, The Open University of Israel
2012-2017
Senior Lecturer of History, The Open University of Israel
2009-2012
Visiting Senior Lecturer of History, The Open University of Israel
2002-2006
Adjunct Lecturer, teaching (pro-)seminars, Dept. of History, Ben-Gurion University
2009-2012
Alon Fellowship for Outstanding Young Researchers, the Council of Higher Education, Israel
2006-2008
Post-doc fellowship with distinction: Gerhard Martin Julius Schmidt Minerva Fellowship, TU Braunschweig, Germany
2005-2006
Fellow of the Karl Franzens University of Graz (Institute of Contemporary History), David Herzog Funds, Austria
2000-2004
Fellow of the Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies; Kreitman Foundation Fellowship for graduate and post-graduate students of exceptional excellence at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
1999
DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship for 2-month research in Wuppertal, Germany
2014-present
Member of the organizing committee of the JCM: Center for the Study of Relations between Jews, Christians, Muslims
2012
Member of the Young Scholars Forum of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities
2011-2012
Editorial member of the 'Internationale Gesellschaft Hegel-Marx für dialektisches Denken'

2018 Fascism and the Masses: The Revolt Against the Last Humans, 1848-1945, Routledge: New York and London, 431 pp.

2009 The Apprentice's Sorcerer: Liberal Tradition and Fascism, Brill: Leiden and Boston, 362 pp.

2007 The Overman in the Marketplace: Nietzschean Heroism in Popular Culture, Lexington: Maryland, 325 pp.

Textbooks
2015 Open University Textbook: The Roots of European Fascism, 1789-1945, 2 vols. 788 pp. [In Hebrew]

“The Magic of the Extreme: On Fascism, Modernity, and Capitalism,” The Journal of Holocaust Research, 33, 2019, pp. 43-63.

“The Negation of Abnegation. Marx on Consumption,” Historical Materialism 26.1 2018, pp. 3–36

“A Shower of Hail to All Orchards’: On the Consumerist Interpretation of National Socialism,” Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2017, pp. 89-110.

“Progress, fascism, and the Last Humans,” Journal of Political Ideologies, 22, 2017, pp. 30-51.

“The Social Individual and the Last Human: Marx and Nietzsche Agree to Disagree,” Critical Sociology. Published online first, November, 2016.

"From the Elevated Hero to the Marginal One, and Back Again," with Luis Landa, Mikan, (special volume in Honor of Tamar Alexander), Vol. 15, No. 2, 2015, pp. 309-326. [In Hebrew]

"Bataille's Libidinal Economics: Capitalism as an Open Wound," Critical Sociology, published online first, June 2014.

"Bataille: The Master, the Slave, and Consumption," Critical Sociology, published online first, May 2014.

"True Requirements or the Requirements of Truth? The Nietzschean Communism of Alain Badiou," International Critical Thought, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2013, pp. 424-443.

"Aroma and Shadow: Marx vs. Nietzsche on Religion," Nature, Society, and Thought, Vol. 18, No. 4, 2006, pp. 461-499.

"Slaves of the Ring: Tolkien's Political Unconscious," Historical Materialism, Vol. 10, No. 4, January 2003, pp. 113-134.

"Nietzsche, the Chinese Worker's Friend," New Left Review, 236, July-August 1999, pp. 3-23.

“Mass Hysteria or a Class Act? Premonitions of Fascism between Marxism and Liberalism,” The Longue Durée of the Far-Right: An International Historical Sociology, R. Saull, A. Anievas, N. Davidson, A. Fabry, eds., London: Routledge, 2014, pp. 44-63.

"James Bond: a Nietzschean for the Cold War," in James Bond and Philosophy, Chicago: Open Court, 2006, pp. 79-94.

“‘Take Care not to Spit against the Wind!’ War on the Last Man from Nietzsche to Jünger,” in Politische Gewalt in Deutschland. Ursprünge - Ausprägungen – Konsequenzen, D. Avraham and  (eds.), Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für deutsche Geschichte, 42, 2014, pp. 35-52.

“Who’s Afraid of the End of History?” Dialettica, storia e conflitto. Il proprio tempo appreso nel pensiero. Festschrift in onore di Domenico Losurdo, Stefano G. Azzarà, ed., Napoli: Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, 2011, pp. 275-288.

“Heideggers entwendeter Brief: Die liberale Volksgemeinschaft,” in Politische Unschuld? In Sachen Martin Heidegger, Bernhard H.F. Taureck, ed., München: W. Fink, 2008, pp. 97-127.

Review of  Alain Badiou, The Rebirth of History. Times of Riots and Uprisings. Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, 2013.

Review of Peter Beilharz, Socialism and Modernity. Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, 2012.

Review of Denis Mäder, Fortschritt Bei Marx. Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, 04.2011.

Review of Bernhard HF Taureck’s “Zwischen den Bildern” and “Die Menschenwürde im Zeitalter ihrer Abschaffung” in freitext. Kultur- und Gesellschaftsmagazin. Heft 9, 2007.

Review of “Critical Affinities: Nietzsche and African-American Thought,” ed. J. Scott, A. Franklin, in Nature, Society, and Thought, 19, 3, 2006, pp. 366-378.

“‘What Happens when the Propeller Revolves?’ Fascism, History and Time,” On Time. Time in Research and in Human Experience – A special issue celebrating 40 years since the foundation of the Israeli Open University, Haaretz, May 2016, pp. 30-31. [In Hebrew]

“Eyes Wide Shut:  Liberalismus, Faschismus und die diskursiven Grenzen der ‘Open Society’” Marburger Forum, Beiträge zur geistigen Situation der Gegenwart, Jg. 9 (2008), Heft 2.[Internet publication: http://www.philosophia-online.de /mafo/ heft2008-2/Lan_Eye.htm]

Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation in Minerva Year-book. March 2008.

“The Absent Father: Patriarchy and Social Order in the Films of Zhang Yimou,” Nature, Society, and Thought. Vol. 20, No. 2, 2007, pp. 228-234.

“On Marxism, Religion, Straws, and Beams: A Response to David S. Pena’s Reply,” Nature, Society, and Thought. Vol. 20, No. 1, 2007, pp. 113-121.

“Mister Bond and Dr. Bean.” Iton 77, 1998, 215, pp. 36-39. [In Hebrew]

  • "Fascism and the Challenge of Mass Society," The 15th Annual Conference of Historical Materialism, London, SOAS, November 2018.

  • "Conversation and Interview: On Fascism, Liberalism and Mass Society," Volksfronten--Our Little Fascisms, steirischerherbst '18, Graz, Austria. September 2018.

  • "On Fascism, Modernity, and Capitalism," Workshop: Rethinking United Fronts and the Far Right in the Contemporary World, York University, Toronto, Canada. July 2018.

  • "The Magic of the Extreme," Cultural Center Rex, Belgrade, Serbia. May 2018.

  • "The Magic of the Extreme": Forum of the Dept. of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University, Israel, April 2018.

  • "Right-Nietzscheanism, Left-Nietzscheanism: A Historical and Conceptual Perspective," The 14th Annual Conference of Historical Materialism, London, SOAS, November 2017.

  • “Hannah Arendt, the Shoah, and the Responsibility of Intellectuals,” June 2017. Hannah Arendt and the Limits of the Human: A Reading in the Testimonies of Holocaust Survivors, Tel Aviv — An evening to launch Michal Aharony’s book: Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Total Domination: The Holocaust, Plurality, and Resistance] [In Hebrew]

  • “The Social Individual and the Last Human: Marx and Nietzsche Agree to Disagree,” Nietzsche & Critical Social Theory. Affirmation, Animosity, Ambiguity. San Diego State University, January 2017.

  • “The Crisis of World Liberalism: The USA as a Case Study,” Following the 2016 US Elections, a study day of the Mesila Club, sponsored by the MA Track for Democracy Studies, The Open University, Israel, Tel Aviv. November 2016. [in Hebrew]

  • The Great Fighters against History’: Fascism and Progress,” The Vicissitudes of Progress — study day, The Open University, Ra’anana. April 2016. [in Hebrew]

  • “The Last Human on the Defensive: Fascism against the Masses,” Master-men, master-plans, and under-Humans: Interwar European Fascism, The Open University, Ra’anana [A study day to launch Ishay Landa’s textbook: The Roots of European Fascism, 1789-1945], March 2016. [in Hebrew]

  • “The Social Individual and the Last Man: Marx and Nietzsche Agree to Disagree,” The 12th Annual Conference of Historical Materialism, London, SOAS, November 2015.

  • “The Nostalgia for Pain: Examining a Modern Trope,” Nostalgia. Historicising the Longing for the Past, the German Historical Institute, London, October 2015.

  • “Consumers Versus Citizens? A Historical Overview of Left-wing Positions,” Consumption and Culture in Israel: Critical Aspects and Social Meanings. The Inaugural Conference of the Professional Community for the Research of Consumption and Culture,” the Israeli Sociological Association, The Open University, Ra’anana, Israel, June 2015. [In Hebrew]

  • “Marxism and the Idea of Progress: A Re-evaluation,” London Conference in Critical Thought 2015, University College London, 26th & 27th June.

  • Keynote lecture: “Progress and Fascism: The Proof of the Pudding?” May Day School 2015, “How do we think about fascism today?,” The Institute for Labour Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

  • “Will Not a Poor Person Enter the Kingdom of God? On Jews, Christians, and Capitalism,” 4th Conference of the Center for the Study of Relations between Jews, Christians, Muslims, The Open University, Ra’anana, Israel, 2014, December [in Hebrew].

  • “Capitalism, History, and Progress: Marxist Perspectives Re-examined,” London, SOAS, the 11th Annual Conference of Historical Materialism, November 2014.

  • “Liberalism, Fascism, and the Conundrum of Mass Society,” Lecture in the frame of the Lecture Series “Theories of the Capitalist State” at the Centre for Labour Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia, 2014, September.

  • “Brushing History against the Grain: Walter Benjamin’s Concept of Progress,” The Open University, Ra’anana May 2014 [in Hebrew].

  • "Buying out of it: working-class consumption under capitalism," The 10th Annual Conference of Historical Materialism: "Making the World Working Class," at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, November 2013.

  • "Consumption and Citizenship: Water and Oil? Left-Wing Positions in Historical Perspective," A Multi-Disciplinary Research Workshop: Measuring the Immeasurable: Social Movements and Changes in the Conceptual Understandings and Practices of Citizenship, Zichron Ya'akov, Israel, July-August 2013

  • "Neither God, nor Master, nor Nature, nor Overman: Marx's Humanism," The Left Forum international conference, Pace University, New York, June 2013.

  • "The Left and the Masses: The Question of Consumption," The Left Forum international conference, Pace University, New York, June 2013.

  • "Prometheus Insulted: A Re-examination of ‘Red-Green’ Politics," 1st Asian Conference of Historical Materialism, Delhi University, April 2013.

  • “Capitalism and Consumption: A Re-evaluation,” Young Scholars Forum of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, March 2013.

  • “‘Take care not to spit against the wind!’: War on the Last Man from Nietzsche to Jünger,”  Violence and Politics in Germany: Origins and Consequences of Nazism, Bar-Ilan University,  January 2013.

  • “The Liberal Critique of Fascism: a Mythology Revisited,”  Workshop: The Longue Duree of The Far-Right: Ideology, Organization, State Formation and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London, October 2012.

  • “Communism and Consumerism: A New Perspective,” London Conference in Critical Thought, Birkbeck College University of London, June 2012.

  • “Anti-Dionysus: a Judaeo-Christian Critique of the Nietzschean Space,” Tradition and Transition in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Cultures, at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, June 2012.

  • "On Slaves, Bankers and Officers: Nietzsche and the Judeo-Christian Tradition," Opening Conference of the Center for the Study of Relations between Jews, Christians, Muslims, Open University, Ra'anana, Israel, December 2011.

  • "Who's Afraid of the End of History?," Conference of the Internationale Gesellschaft Hegel-Marx für dialektisches Denken at the University of Urbino, Italy, November 2011.

  • "A Tale of Two Cities, and Two Manuscripts: Marx on Consumption," The 8th Annual Conference of Historical Materialism: "Spaces of Capital, Moments of Struggle," at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, November 2011.
  • "The End of History, or the End of Consumer Society?," Forum of the Dept. of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University, Israel, February 2011.

  • "Anti-Liberal Fascism? Individualism as a Case Study," The Seventh Annual Conference of Historical Materialism: "Crisis and Critique." at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, November 2010.

  • "Liberalismus und Faschismus: eine Wahlverwandtschaft," Lecture at the Center for Austrian and German Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, October 2010. 

  • "Fascism and the Liberal Split,"  The Left Forum international conference, Pace University, New York, March 2010.

  • "On the Negation of Abnegation," The Left Forum 2009, Pace University, New York, April 2009.

  • "On The Socialist Necessity of Re-Appropriating Pleasure," The fifth annual conference of Historical Materialism: "Many Marxisms," The School of Oriental and African Studies, London, November 2008.

  • "God is Dead: Long Live Nietzsche! Or Marx?," Inaugural North American Conference, "Historical Materialism," York University, Toronto, April 2008.

  • "The Absent Father: Patriarchy and the Social Order in the Films of Zhang Yimou," Conference on "The Socialist Market Economy and Other Theoretical Issues," Beijing, China, June 2007.

  • 'The Happiness of the Cow From a Socialist Perspective," conference on "Moments of Futurity: From Present Conditions to Material(Izing) Horizons," Gainesville, FL, March 2007.

  • "Der Massenwahn der Faschismustheorie," TU Braunschweig, Germany, January 2007.

  • "Fascism as Mass Movement: Origins of a Theory," Lecture in the framework of the Lecture Series of the Dept. of History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, December 2004.

  • "James Bond: a Nietzschean for the Cold War," conference on "The Cultural Politics of Ian Fleming," Bloomington Univ., Indiana, June 2003.

  • "How to Tame a Bulldog: the Sociopolitical Mission of Nietzschean Heroism," Presenter and co-organizer, "The first international conference for graduate students of the Center for German Studies," at BGU, December 2001.