Name: Holocaust Studies From the Outside In: Art and Relational Thinking in Times of Crisis
Start: 2025-11-06T16:15:00-05:00
Location: 11 Hawthorne Street, Worcester, MA, United States, Massachusetts 01610

Holocaust Studies From the Outside In: Art and Relational Thinking in Times of Crisis

6 November 2025 | 4:15pm |Higgins Lounge
Dana Commons
Albert M. Tapper Annual Lecture

Keynote: Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust: Inaugural Emerging Scholars Conference

Speaker: Sarah Casteel (Professor of English, Carleton University)

Holocaust Studies From the Outside In: Art and Relational Thinking in Times of Crisis

In the aftermath of October 7th, as the contemporary meaning and relevance of the Holocaust come under greater pressure, Holocaust studies is confronting existential questions regarding its purpose and future. This talk considers how remapping the field through unconventional disciplinary, cultural, and geographical lenses can help scholars to navigate these challenges. In keeping with the field’s recent colonial turn, it identifies wartime and contemporary literature and visual art that present Holocaust experience as entangled with other histories of violence. In particular, Black writing and art about the Holocaust promote a relational understanding of shared and intersecting histories that combats contemporary polarization.

Zoom Registration Link:

https://clarku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HNEfWouXTzm1U3JGSjY6tg

Keynote address sponsored by the Albert M. Tapper Charitable Foundation
6 November – 9 November | 9:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. | Higgins Lounge
Dana Commons
Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust: Inaugural Emerging Scholars Conference
The conference aims to bring together scholars working in different languages, disciplines, discourses, and methodologies for intellectual exchange, networking, and mentorship. Topics include a broad variety of aspects of the Holocaust, its causes, history, memory, and representation, and comparative approaches. This conference also serves as the sixth conference in the Strassler Center’s series of graduate student conferences.
The Conference is a closed event, but the public is invited to attend the keynote through the Zoom link provided.
Presented by the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in cooperation with the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University (HEFNU)