Since trading in his positions as the Dupee University Professor of Social Science and Professor of Anthropology and Italian Studies for that of Research Professor at Brown in July 2023, David Kertzer has continued his research and writing on Italian politics and religion.  Dividing his time between his home in Maine, Rome, Italy, and San Jose, California, with occasional forays to campus, he has been working on a book on Italy’s racial laws, the anti-Jewish laws first enacted by Mussolini in 1938.  The book – tentative title: Denial – is based on about 150,000 pages of documents from various Italian archives that he has digitized.

Since his retirement from teaching, Kertzer has lectured in several U.S. universities and various other sites in the U.S., France, and Italy.  In that time, too, German and Spanish editions of his most recent book, The Pope at War, have appeared, with Chinese, Czech, and Russian editions in press. British and Italian editions were published earlier. Since switching to the role of Research Professor he has also published several articles in scholarly journals, including: 

• “Jews as non-Aryans: The Vatican’s ambivalent embrace of Fascist Italy’s racialization of Jews” (with Roberto Benedetti), Journal of Contemporary History 58:2:247-266, 2023
• “In the wake of the Holocaust: Massimo Vitale, Pius XII, and the Battle over the Good Friday Prayer for the ‘Perfidious Jews’” (with Roberto Benedetti), Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 18:1:1-24, 2023
• “Le conseiller du Pape Pie XII pour les affaires juives : Monseigneur Angelo Dell’Acqua e la Shoah » (with Roberto Benedetti), Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah 218:2:125-146, 2023 [also available in English edition 218:129-150]
• “Galeazzo Ciano, ambasciatore d’Italia presso la Santa Sede” (with Roberto Benedetti), Nuova Rivista Storica 108:3:775-811, 2024 [a revised and greatly expanded version of a 2022 Journal of Modern Italian Studies publication]
• “Protesting Too Much: Baptized Jews’ appeals to the Vatican for aid attaining Aryan status in Fascist Italy, 1938-1943,” (with Roberto Benedetti), Antisemitism Studies 8:1:43-63, 2024
• “Il ruolo centrale della Chiesa cattolica nell’amministrazione delle leggi razziali: il caso di Bologna,” Annali di storia dell’esegesi 41:1:33-41, 2024

In addition, Kertzer published a lengthy article stemming from his new research project in The Atlantic:    

• “‘I am a practicing Catholic and I am a proud Jew,’” The Atlantic, October 29, 2023

as well as a book review:

• Review of Emily Michelson, Catholic Spectacle and Rome’s Jews: Early Modern Conversion and Resistance, Journal of Modern History 96:3:732-33, 2024

He continues to serve on the board of trustees of the American Academy in Rome.