WWU to Host Discussion, Panel on Holocaust/Genocide Studies April 23

Western Washington University and Western Libraries will host Lisa Marcus and Kirsten Christenson from Pacific Lutheran University from 4-5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23 in VU 565A as they present “Collaborating Across Disciplines:  Holocaust and Genocide Studies at PLU.”

In this two-part talk, Marcus and Christensen will discuss several features of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Pacific Lutheran University.

Marcus will describe a project bringing together students and faculty from English, History and Religion to explore the implications of cultural critic Theodor Adorno’s famous claim that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” The Poetry After Auschwitz Project resulted in several public presentations, a meaningful exchange among students and faculty across disciplines, and was recently published in the Reform Jewish Quarterly.

Christensen will discuss key features of the development of PLU’s new academic minor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, inaugurated last fall. She will describe the collaborative development of the program mission statement and syllabus for the introductory course, and will also explain the program’s commitment to team teaching, a value that underscores the inherent interdisciplinarity of the academic study of the Holocaust and other genocides.

Christensen is an associate professor of German at PLU, where she teaches all levels of German language and culture. She is part of the faculty group that designed PLU’s new program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and team-taught the first iteration of the introductory course in fall 2014. She also served on the organizing committee for this year’s Powell-Heller Conference in Holocaust Education.

Lisa Marcus is an associate professor of English and a founding member of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program at PLU. Among her recent publications are “‘The Holocaust Without Smoke’:  Irena Klepfisz’s ‘Bashert’” and a poem,“I did not lose my father at Auschwitz,” in the Poetry After Auschwitz Forum.

For more information on this event contact Jeanne Armstrong at (360) 650-7667 or Jeanne.armstrong@wwu.edu.