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Flora Cassen

Chair and Associate Professor of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies, Washington University in St Louis
Flora Cassen was born and grew up in Antwerp, Belgium. She went to college in Brussels and studied law and history at the Free University of Brussels. She moved to New York in 2000 to continue her studies at NYU, earning a PhD in Jewish History in 2008. She has taught European and Jewish history at the University of Vermont, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and now at Washington University in Saint Louis, where she is also the Chair of the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies.
Her book Marking the Jews in Renaissance Italy: Politics, Religion, and the Power of Symbols was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016. It tells the history of the yellow badges or hats that Jews were forced to wear in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Her book offers a reflection on the power of discriminatory signs and explains where Renaissance anti-Judaism came from and what it meant to Italian Jews and Christians. She has published articles in flagship academic journals such as the Journal of Early Modern History, the Jewish Quarterly Review, the Association for Jewish Studies Review, and in collections of essays. Her articles together with the book form a body of work that explores diverse facets of early Modern Jewish life (ranging all the way from anti-Judaism and dress to travel, spying, and food) in Italy and the Spanish Empire. In addition to her academic work, she has been writing columns for broad public audiences on the subject European antisemitism.

Economy

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Reducing energy demand and improving efficiency will help prevent the next gas crisis

Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Minimum wage for South African farm workers: study shows 2013 hike helped reduce poverty even though compliance was poor

Minimum wage policies are typically aimed at reducing poverty. Yet there is little direct evidence of this effect, especially in developing countries. And none for South Africa. In a recent paper, we consider the...

Gas is good until 2050 and beyond, under Albanese gas strategy

The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel through to 2050 and beyond. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuels uses would change over...

South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed

The South African governments Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan was launched in November 2023. It is a roadmap guiding the country away from reliance on coal-fired power towards renewable energy alternatives by...

Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections

Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote....

South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

South Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union. Between them they represent 85% of global...

What early 2024 polls are revealing about voters of color and the GOP

By the end of winter 2024, the return of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP presidential ticket has revealed a surprising trend in the former presidents base of support: his increasing popularity among Black and Latino...

Science

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

Technology

Skechers Sales Surge as Growth Lags for Nike and Adidas; Nike Eyes 2024 Olympics

Skechers reported a significant sales boost last quarter, while Nike and Adidas struggled with growth. Nike aims to leverage the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris to regain momentum and improve market performance. Skechers...

Binance Enhances SHIB, USTC, AGIX Trading and Liquidity for Better Market Dynamics

Binance has announced efforts to enhance liquidity and trading for Shiba Inu (SHIB), USTC, and SingularityNET (AGIX), including tick size adjustments aimed at improving market dynamics and trading experience. Binances...

OpenAI Disbands Team Tackling AI Risks Amid Leadership Changes and GPT-4o Launch

OpenAI has dismantled its Superalignment team, initially formed to address AI risks, following the resignations of key leaders Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike. OpenAI Disbands Superalignment Team Days After Leaders Resign,...

$73M Crypto Scam: Two Foreign Nationals Arrested for 'Pig Butchering'

The Justice Department prosecuted two Chinese nationals on Friday in a cryptocurrency scam that laundered at least $73 million from deceived victims. Defendants Allegedly Used Shell Corporations to Launder Funds Through...

Tether's $1B USDT Mint Boosts Bitcoin, Eyes on $70K Milestone

Bitcoin has switched its former resistance into support, as Tethers market capitalization continues to rise swiftly in 2024. Tether, the worlds largest stablecoin, has issued another $1 billion, raising its market...