Bryan K. Roby

Bryan K. Roby is an Associate Professor of Jewish and Middle Eastern History at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, affiliated with the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the Department of Judaic Studies. He also holds faculty positions at the Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies (CMENAS) and the African Studies Center (ASC).

His research examines the intersections of race, identity, and diaspora in the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on:

• Historical and contemporary dynamics of racism
• Black diasporas and their connections to Jewish communities
• Social justice movements in Israel/Palestine and North Africa
• Mizrahi Jewish identity and activism
• Transnational migration of racialized ideas

Key works include his book The Mizrahi Era of Rebellion: Israel’s Forgotten Civil Rights Struggle 1948-1966 (2015) and the ongoing project Blackness Refracted: Race and the Making of the Jewish Color Line in the Twentieth Century, analyzing global racial discourses through Afro-Asian Jewish experiences.