Center Holds International Workshop on German-Jewish Studies in Cooperation with Berlin’s Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung

Keynote by Prof. S. Schüler-Springorum (top row, second from right)

​In recent years, the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies has strengthened its research profile, among others by co-organizing the 2019 conference on Holocaust testimony with our partners at the USC Shoah Foundation and Western Galilee College in Akko, Israel.
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In March, the Center took another important step in this direction by co-organizing the latest annual workshop of the Southeast German Studies (SEGS) Consortium as a virtual event. The workshop focused especially on “New Approaches in German-Jewish Studies” and “Refugee and Migration Studies.” It brought together some 50 scholars from across the Southeastern U.S. and Germany as well as several diplomats, including Anke Yael Popper, the new German-Jewish Head of Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of the Federal Republic in Washington, D.C. The event was made all the more meaningful by the cooperation with the prestigious Center for Research on Antisemitism (ZfA) at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. Some of the ZfA’s doctoral students also submitted position papers.

The Center’s director, Prof. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, a renowned expert in German-Jewish history and gender studies, delivered an insightful keynote lecture on “racial defilement” and sexual violence in Nazi Germany that prompted fruitful discussions. The Center here received a lot of positive feed-back. Participants praised the “organization and communication” and stressed that the workshop organizers “managed to create a very inviting and friendly atmosphere” under the “trying circumstances.”  of a pandemic. The Center is currently preparing the next SEGS workshop, seeking to cooperate with partners in Israel.