The Gentileman's Agreement in Canadian University Campuses: How Jewish Faculty Members Navigate an Asymmetric Contract and Stigma

Abstract

This thesis examines the materialization and operation of what I term The Gentileman's Agreement - the asymmetric, often implicit, moral contract between Jews and non-Jews that governs the formers' inclusion - and how Jewish faculty members navigate it on Canadian campuses. It draws primarily on Erving Goffman's (1963) stigma theory to understand how the stigmatization of certain expressions of Jewish identity, namely Zionism, upheld and reproduced The Agreement at the individual and institutional levels. This thesis undertakes a secondary data analysis of interviews with 40 Jewish faculty members, diverse in academic discipline, location, professional rank, and political leaning. The interview data originates from the "Faculty Experiences of Antisemitism Research" study, co-led by Drs. Cary Kogan at the University of Ottawa and Deidre Butler at Carleton University. The findings and analysis developed in this thesis provide insight into how Jewish faculty members came to understand and experienced Zionism as a spoiled identity through indirect and direct instances of stigmatization prior to and following their entry into Canadian academia. They also illustrate how Jewish faculty members negotiated their stigmatized identities through concealing, minimizing, and reclaiming their Jewish identities. The accounts by Jewish faculty members underscore the asymmetry of The Agreement: non-Jewish actors are positioned as the arbiters of what, if any, expression of Jewish identity is "acceptable", and that Jews must continually prove their worth and justify their existence through fulfilling their prescribed role as subservient, powerless, and agreeable - in essence, as a human giver.