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Nearly 80 years after the Holocaust we still face many unanswered and perhaps unanswerable questions: what were the dilemmas faced by Jews who sought to leave Europe? How do we understand the role of ‘bystanders’ and notions of complicity? When atrocities are occurring in the fog of war, how can moral evaluation and imperatives to act be hampered? What questions are raised by the renewed focus on the perpetrators, through representations in film and theatre? How might these complexities be represented in Holocaust museums?
In this event, moderator Jayne Josem will facilitate a conversation exploring the complexities of such moral questions between Deakin University philosopher Associate Professor Patrick Stokes and Associate Professor of Ethics and Impact and Resident Ethicist at the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership, Leslie Cannold.
Please join us for the inaugural event of a new annual series featuring conversations between experts on themes related to Holocaust history and memory. The event honours the contribution made by Jayne Josem to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum over two decades.
Patrick Stokes is associate professor of philosophy at Deakin University, and a writer, radio producer, and media commentator on philosophical matters. He is currently engaged in a three-year Australian Research Council-funded project, ‘Digital Death and Immortality.’ His most recent book is Digital Souls: A Philosophy of Online Death (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Dr Leslie Cannold is the Associate Professor of Ethics and Impact and Resident Ethicist at the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership. A medical ethicist and fiction and non-fiction author who began her career studying under and later working towards Peter Singer, Leslie is known for her ability to translate complex ideas for non-specialist audiences on social media, radio and TV, including a widely watched TEDx talk and repeated appearances on ABC TV’s Compass and Q & A.
Leslie has been twice recognised as one of Australia’s foremost public intellectuals, has won an EVA award for gender-sensitive reporting and was the 2011 Humanist of the Year.
Jayne Josem is CEO of the Cranbourne Foundation, whose purpose is to advance and strengthen the Victorian Jewish community for generations to come.
Former CEO of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, and long-time Curator and Head of Collections, Jayne was the recipient of the AMaGA Victoria Award for Excellence in 2022. Jayne spear-headed a substantial museum redevelopment project, was lead curator of the permanent exhibition Everybody Had a Name and executive producer of the powerful VR survivor testimony film Walk with Me.
Her work focussed on amplifying the voices of Holocaust survivors and sharing the MHM Collections widely through the physical and digital space, for the purpose of broader civic education. Over the years this has meant adapting and learning different modalities of presentation to attract and engage audiences. Throughout her career she has mentored students and young professionals and delivered papers at conferences and programs to share her knowledge.
Image | Courtesy of Sav Schulman.
