Arie M. Dubnov


Arie M. Dubnov is an Israeli-born, US-based essayist and historian. He specializes in modern Jewish and Israeli history, nationalism, the history of the British Empire in the Middle East, and intellectual history. He currently serves as the Max Ticktin Chair of Israel Studies at George Washington University.

Education and career

Dubnov was born in Petach-Tikvah, Israel, in 1977. He earned his BA, MA, and PhD in history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a George L. Mosse fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before serving as acting assistant professor at Stanford University and Senior Lecturer at the University of Haifa.
In 2017, Dubnov became the inaugural holder of the Max Ticktin Chair of Israel Studies at George Washington University, where he also serves as director of the Middle East Program in addition to his role as chair.
In addition to his scholarly work, Dubnov has written a number of Hebrew and English essays, op-eds, and short stories for publications such as Haaretz, Ho!, Yedioth Ahronoth, and Jewish Quarterly, among others.

Scholarship and research

Dubnov’s scholarship spans intellectual history, Zionism, Empire and decolonization, and
comparative nationalism. His work often explores the intersections of liberalism, Jewish identity, and imperial contexts, and he has written extensively on British imperial federalism, the history of Zionism, and the global history of partitions.
Dubnov’s first book, Isaiah Berlin: The Journey of a Jewish Liberal, was an intellectual
biography of the liberal philosopher and British-Jewish thinker Isaiah Berlin. The book offers a reassessment of Berlin’s life and thought,
tracing his intellectual development from childhood to his more mature work. It examines Berlin both as an East European Jewish émigré and a British liberal thinker, highlighting the relationship
between his liberal philosophy and his Zionist sympathies.
The book received mixed reviews from critics. Historian Noam Pianko praised it as “a compelling claim that Berlin’s ambivalence toward Zionism shaped his communitarian impulses and distinguished him
from other British liberal theorists,” while political theorist Kei Hiruta described it as “a well-researched and illuminating study that situates Berlin’s thought within the tensions of his Jewish
identity and liberal commitments.” However, Aileen Kelly, a historian of Russian intellectual
history, criticized the book for downplaying Berlin’s Russian identity, while political scientist Joshua Cherniss characterized it as “an insightful but sometimes overstated attempt to read Berlin
through the lens of Jewishness.”

Role in AIS dispute (2019)

In 2019, Dubnov was awarded the AIS-Israel Institute Young Scholar Award from the Association for Israel Studies. However, he declined the award and an invitation to join the AIS board, protesting against
the special issue of the journal Israel Studies entitled "Word Crimes: Reclaiming The Language of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." Dubnov, along with numerous other scholars, criticized the "Word Crimes" issue for blurring the lines between advocacy and scholarship and attempting to police academic debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During the controversy, numerous board members resigned and issued a letter of dissent, arguing that
the special issue deviated from academic standards and began to stray too far into political advocacy. Following the protest, the
co-editors of Israel Studies published a statement acknowledging flaws in the decision-making
process, expressing regret, and pledging to implement clear governance and editorial procedures. However, they did not retract the issue, maintaining that such dissent was not "universal."

Selected works

Books

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Articles

  • “Politics of the Comparative Gaze: The Three Languages of Right-Wing Zionist Radicalism,” Palestine/Israel Review.
  • “Nahum Slouschz and the Birth of Hebraic Mediterraneità,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft.
  • “‘I Am Civil War,’ Or: Haim Gouri’s Poetics of Lyrical Concealment,” Dibur: Literary Journal.
  • “The Toynbee Affair at 100: The Birth of ‘World History’ and the Long Shadow of the Interwar Liberal Imaginaire,” Histories.
  • “Can Parallels Meet? Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin on the Jewish Post-Emancipatory Quest for Political Freedom,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book.
  • "'Those New Men of the Sixties': Nihilism in the Liberal Imagination." Rethinking History, vol. 17, no. 1, 18-40.
  • “Anti-Cosmopolitan Liberalism: Isaiah Berlin, Jacob Talmon and the Dilemma of National Identity,” Nations and Nationalism.