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Queer Experiences in the Holocaust — call for workshop contributions

Date

Contributions are welcome for Queer Experiences in the Holocaust, a workshop taking place on 16 April 2024 at the University of Leeds with keynote speaker Dr Anna Hájková (University of Warwick).

Organised by the Centre for Jewish Studies, this workshop seeks to explore the ways in which victims of Nazi persecution have testified to and have left traces of queer experience. This might include, but not be limited to:

  • Queer experiences in video testimony
  • Queer readings of Holocaust testimony, such as the interventions made by Amy Elman and Cheryl Hann about Anne Frank’s diary
  • Queer experiences in archival material
  • Queer memoir and life writing
  • Queer artworks

Inspired by – and seeking to build upon – the recent turn towards queer historiography in Holocaust studies, this workshop will focus on queer experiences of the Holocaust.

It is particularly concerned both with how survivors have testified to these queer experiences, and how scholars can uncover their traces despite the ways they have been silenced, obscured, hidden and flattened by traditional discourses, and despite the fact that many of these traces are held in the archives of the perpetrators.

We are also painfully aware that the time for speaking directly to queer survivors of the Holocaust has nearly run out. In an effort to foster intellectual exchange and reflection, we aim to bring together scholars working in different disciplines, methodologies (especially queer methodologies), and theoretical perspectives, and who analyse different types of evidence.

The workshop seeks to advance interdisciplinary inquiries into queer history and memory of the Holocaust and, importantly, to facilitate the exploration of new ways to approach survivors’ testimonies to reveal the traces of queer experience within them.

See here for the full call for papers, including a list of references relevant to the workshop theme.

Abstract

Please submit a brief abstract (maximum 200 words) and a short biography by email to Dr Rosie Ramsden at r.ramsden@leeds.ac.uk or Professor Helen Finch at h.c.finch@leeds.ac.uk by 24 February 2024.

Contributions from postgraduate students and early career researchers are especially encouraged.

A publication is envisaged as an outcome of the workshop.