The Melbourne Holocaust Museum invites you to join us for a panel discussion about studying the Holocaust at a tertiary level.
Perhaps the most studied subject in the humanities today, the Holocaust continues to attract students all over the world. What is it about this subject that inspires so many young researchers and what are the different destinations to which their studies take them? In this panel discussion, chaired by David Slucki from Monash University, we will encounter the research of four different university students and graduates. In addition to exploring their respective motivations, this is also an opportunity to find out what their experiences studying the Holocaust have been like, and any important discoveries that they made along the way.
Dr Sam Bennett finished a PhD at the University of Bristol in 2005 looking at the experiences of Holocaust survivors integrating into new lives in New York City in the immediate post-war period. Sam previously led the National Disability Insurance Agency’s Policy and Research Division, and has recently started in a new role leading the Grattan Institute’s Disability Program. He lives in Bayside in Melbourne with his wife Sarah (who works at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum) and their two children Ava and Woody.
Margot Holt completed her master’s dissertation at Monash University in 2021 which examined audiovisual testimonies of female Holocaust witnesses who recount their experiences of sexual violence. She is particularly interested in how memories of such experiences form over time, as well as the ways in which witnesses communicate their recollections. Margot plans to undertake a PhD in which she will focus on audiovisual testimonies of former hidden children.
Janine Schloss is a PhD candidate in Jewish Cultural Practice at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University. She is currently researching the German Jewish refugees of Eswatini (Swaziland) through the prism of third-generation Holocaust narrative. Janine is also a Program Manager at Melbourne Jewish Book Week.
Laura Garland is a human rights lawyer, with fifteen years’ experience working with and for indigenous communities. Laura Garland is a PhD Candidate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University, where she is developing a trauma-informed training program for human rights lawyers on compassionate witnessing, specifically for working with collective trauma. Her research and creative non-fiction writing draws on both her professional experience and her family story of Holocaust survival, in an exploration of collective healing.
