草榴社区

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草榴社区's Ray Wolpow Institute to host international Holocaust symposium, public lecture

The public is invited to keynote lecture: 鈥淭estimonies of Flight, Afterlives of Refuge鈥 on April 18, as part of a symposium in partnership with The Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University (HEFNU)

Bellingham, WA 鈥 The and the鈥痑re pleased to announce the cross-border Regional Institute 鈥淲itness: Mediating Holocaust Testimony in the Arts鈥 with support from the鈥. The Regional Institute, which brings together higher education faculty with experts in Holocaust Studies, will take place April 17-19, 2024, at Western Washington University鈥檚 main campus in Bellingham, WA. 

As a part of this visit, the public is invited to the HEFNU Regional Institute Keynote Lecture 鈥淭estimonies of Flight, Afterlives of Refuge鈥 by Tabea Alexa Linhard, professor of Spanish and Global Studies at Washington University in St. Louis: 

  • Time: 4-5:30 p.m. on April 18 
  • Location: Wilson Library 677 (Special Collections Research Room) 

Director of the Ray Wolpow Institute Sandra Alfers said, 鈥淚鈥檓 proud that Western has the opportunity to once again host the Regional Institute in partnership with HEFNU, the leading university organization in Holocaust Studies in the United States. The work that our organizations engage in is essential and highly relevant for the times we live in. We warmly welcome our twenty-five faculty guests from Canada and the US to the symposium, and we look forward to welcoming our community to our April 18 keynote lecture.鈥 

Keynote lecturer Tabea Alexa Linhard, professor of Spanish and Global Studies at Washington University in St. Louis

More about the Keynote Lecture 

Before German writer Anna Seghers, author of The Seventh Cross, Transit, 鈥淭he Dead Girls Class Trip,鈥 among many others, fled from occupied Europe to eventually find a place of relative safety in Mexico, she wrote the short story 鈥淛ourney to the Eleventh Realm鈥 (1939).  

With this tale that is as amusing as it is devastating, Seghers satirizes the bureaucratic nightmares that she and many other refugees endured in their attempts to flee from fascism.  

Linhard鈥檚 talk will use Seghers鈥檚 piece as a starting point to discuss depictions and geographies of flight and border crossing in various forms of cultural production and from several locations. The works include testimonies from the 1930s, the war years, and their immediate aftermath.  

The talk will end with a reflection on the significance of memories of displacement and refuge. The lecture is open to the public. No registration is required.  

Special thanks to the Ray Wolpow Institute鈥檚 campus partners, Western Libraries Archives and Special Collections, and to the departments of Global Humanities and Religions, and Modern and Classical Languages. 

 

Media contact

Jonathan Higgins, 草榴社区 Communications Director, jonathan.higgins@wwu.edu