April

Post Holocaust Narratives: Memorializing in the 21st Century

April 6, 2:50-4:30PM, 102 West Village G

Panel Discussion Featuring Janet Jacobs, Debra Kaufman, Lori Lefkovitz and Laurel Leff

How do we generate collective memories of histories of violence and trauma in war and genocide? How do we represent gender in the memorial culture of Holocaust monuments and museums? Professor Jacobs' research took her to Holocaust sites across Europe to explore representations of women to assess how these sites construct masculinity and femininity as well as the Holocaust's effect on stereotypes of race or gender. This discussion of feminist analyses of Holocaust memorialization invites us to reconsider our understanding of genocide and national remembrance and the effects of multiple identities (female, Jewish, academic) on what we choose to study about memory and trauma.

Museums and the World: Whose Story is It?

April 14, 5-7PM, The Amilcar Cabral Center in the John D. O'Bryant African American Institute

This event is free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

This panel discussion will consider how museums, along with other cultural and educational institutions, create and preserve ideas and objects in the global, digital age. What are the challenges of globalization and what are the opportunities? What, especially, are the challenges that the global profit motive poses for institutions that hold, exhibit, and help create our cultural DNA? The panel will bring together four museum professionals, from Mexico, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington D.C., in conversation with leading philosophers and artists. The event will feature artist Fred Wilson, a McArthur Genius Grant recipient and Whitney Museum Trustee, as well as many others. This event is co-sponsored with the University of Southern California.