Conference Announcement and Call for Papers

Send an abstract and a one-paragraph curriculum vitae by February 15, 2007, to Dr. Stephen Gaies, c/o Aurelia Klink, International Programs, Baker 59, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0520, USA Tel. (319) 273-7078 Fax (319) 273-2921 E-mail: aurelia.klink@uni.edu or stephen.gaies@uni.edu.

We are very pleased to announce that our keynote speaker on Thursday, May 24, will be author Helen Epstein. The daughter of Holocaust survivors from Prague, Helen Epstein is a noted lecturer on memoir and biography, author of five books of non-fiction and an affiliate of Harvard University’s Center for European Studies. Her Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors (Penguin, 1979) explores the continuing effects of the Holocaust on survivors and their families and has been justly praised by the Chicago Tribune as “an enormous achievement, heart wrenching and unforgettable,” and by the Los Angeles Sunday Times as “a passionate, brilliantly illuminating book.” Her most recent book, Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History (Holmes & Meier, 2005), provides us with, in the words of Eva Hoffman, “fascinating glimpses of a still unfamiliar world, with its complex history, its hopes, its vicissitudes, and its tragic end.” It is, says Elie Wiesel, “a literary pilgrimage to her past that will move and enrich our quest for memory and understanding.” Helen's latest published work incorporating the pre-Holocaust and post-Holocaust Jewish world in Central Europe is an essay (“Swimming Against Stereotype: The Story of a Twentieth Century Jewish Athlete”) on her sportsman father, who played water polo for Czechoslovakia in the Berlin Olympics of 1936. It is available on www.amazon.com and as a slide presentation by its author.

Keynote Speaker for Saturday, May 26

We are very pleased to announce that in addition to the keynote address by Helen Epstein on Thursday, May 24, the 2007 Legacy of the Holocaust Conference will feature a second keynote address, “Auschwitz in the Back Yard: Polish Artists and the Holocaust,” on Saturday, May 26. Our keynote speaker on May 26 will be Stephen C. Feinstein, Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota (http://www.chgs.umn.edu). Stephen Feinstein is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where he taught from 1969-1999, and has been teaching the History of the Holocaust since 1975. He was curator of the traveling art exhibition, “Witness and Legacy: Contemporary Art about the Holocaust,” at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, which toured in 17 American museums from 1995-2002. In 1999, he was curator of a 7,000 square foot exhibition at the University of Minnesota's Nash Gallery, "Absence/Presence: The Artistic Memory of the Holocaust and Genocide.” Stephen Feinstein has more than 40 published articles and is the co-editor, with Karen Schierman and Marcia Sachs Littell, of Confronting the Holocaust: A Mandate for the 21st Century: Proceedings of the 27th Annual (1996) Scholars’ Conference on the German Churches and the Holocaust (University Press of America, 1998). His latest edited book is Absence/Presence: Critical Essays on the Artistic Memory of the Holocaust (Syracuse University Press, 2005). He is currently writing a monograph, Spaces with Ghosts: Installation Art about the Holocaust. Stephen Feinstein serves as guest curator for the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg and was a plenary speaker in June 2006 at Yad Vashem’s Annual Conference.

This conference continues the tradition of the Legacy of the Holocaust Conference established by the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and held at the Kiewit Conference Center in Omaha in 1998 and 1999. The 2001, 2003, and 2005 conferences were held in Krakow, Poland.

In Krakow, the Legacy of the Holocaust Conference has focused on children and the Holocaust (2001), international perspectives on the Holocaust (2003), and women and the Holocaust (2005). The theme for the 2007 Conference reflects increasing attention in Holocaust scholarship on the pre-war context (historical, political, social, economic and cultural) as well as the aftermath (continuing even today) of the Holocaust.

We welcome proposals for papers and arranged panels on the Holocaust. We encourage proposals that address the conference theme, including, but not limited to, the following topics:

Thursday, May 24, is an academic day, involving opening ceremonies, the keynote address, and concurrent sessions. These events take place at the Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in Europe. In the evening, the Conference will present a concert featuring the European premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s Letter to Warsaw.

Friday, May 25, is reserved for all-day tours. We are offering three options: (a) a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau, possibly including a visit to the Auschwitz Jewish Center; (b) a guided tour of the Krakow Ghetto and Plaszów labor camp, led by Bernard Offen, who was born in the area that became the ghetto and survived the ghetto and Plaszów (along with several other camps); and (c) a bus tour of sites of Jewish life and culture in southern Galicia. The Friday tours are included in the registration fee.

Saturday, May 26, begins with our second keynote address and concurrent sessions at the Jagiellonian University. We then move to the Galicia Jewish Museum (located in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of Krakow) for a buffet lunch and a guided tour of the exhibition, “Traces of the Past,” led by Chris Schwartz, Founder and Director of the Museum and the photographer of the exhibition. The Conference will conclude with a banquet, including klezmer or some other music, in one of Krakow’s fine restaurants on the Main Square.

Full (three-day) Conference (includes Conference packet, refreshments for two days, Thursday evening concert, Friday all-day tour, Saturday lunch and other events, Saturday evening banquet, Proceedings volume, and airport transfer.) -- $250

Saturday only (including lunch and Galicia Jewish Museum events, but not including banquet) -- $65

The registration fees do not include airfare, travel to and from the conference, or hotel accommodations. Information about Conference hotels and rates will be announced later.

Krakow, the medieval capital of Poland, is located on the banks of the Vistula River. Its location in southern Poland places it within fairly easy reach of both Warsaw and the Carpathian Mountains. Krakow offers a magnificent Renaissance town square, the Wavel Castle, which was the home of many of Poland's rulers, and Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter, with seven synagogues and two Jewish cemeteries. Filled with cafes, museums, theaters, concert halls, and sites of historic importance, Krakow is a veritable European jewel.

TO SIGN UP TO ATTEND or to receive more information about the conference, contact:

Aurelia Klink
International Programs
Baker Hall 59
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0520
USA

The Legacy of the Holocaust:

The World Before,
The World After

May 24 - 26, 2007

The Legacy of the Holocaust:

The World Before, The World After

May 24 - 26, 2007

The World Before,
The World After