Dr. David Slavin

Professional Background

Professor David Slavin received a Ph.D. in modern European history from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in modern European history and modern Chinese history from New York University, and a B.A. in history and economics from Oberlin College. During his fellowship at the Museum, he was Assistant Professor at Knox College in New York. For his Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship for Archival Research, Professor Slavin conducted research for his project “Vichy France’s Two Anti-Semitisms.”

Professor Slavin is the author of Colonial Cinema and Imperial France, 1919-1939: White Blindspots, Male Fantasies, Settler Myths (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001) as well as several scholarly articles. He is the recipient of fellowships and awards from Georgetown University, Harvard University, the University of Iowa, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He has participated in scholarly programs, such as Harvard University’s program on “War and Memory: Postwar Representations of the Occupation and WWII in French Literature, History and Film.” He has served as a visiting scholar at Emory University, a visiting assistant professor and Knox College and Johns Hopkins University, and a visiting instructor at Georgia State University.

Fellowship Research

During his tenure at the Museum, Professor Slavin studied Algerian settler society’s role as a hidden source of anti-Semitism and as an impetus for Vichy’s assault on its Jewish citizens. The Vichy regime not only created an anti-Semitic environment within France but also in France-occupied Algeria. Vichy took away French citizenship from Algerian Jews, confiscated their property, and set up internment camps. Professor Slavin examined the actions of the Vichy as well as the impact its anti-Semitism left on Algeria’s Jewry. Professor Slavin utilized the Museum’s archival collection concerning the French Foreign Ministry as well as collections on Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian Jewry.

Professor Slavin was in residence at the Mandel Center from August 15, 2003 to February 12, 2004.