International Conference "Digital Approaches to Genocide Studies"
October 23-24, 2017 at the University of Southern California
International scholars from many disciplines gathered to examine the relationships between digital methodologies, practices, ethics and contemporary Holocaust and genocide studies. How can digital humanities shape, challenge, or complement contemporary genocide studies and vice versa? The conference investigated the ways in which digital tools and methods, new media, and information technologies can help us to challenge conventional wisdom regarding Holocaust and Genocide Studies by raising new questions, improving our understanding, deepening our analysis, widening our field of view, or pioneering new approaches.
Welcome remarks:
Wolf Gruner, Founding Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research
Stephen Smith, Finci-Viterbi Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation
Introductory Panel
Chair: Lyn Boyd-Judson, Global Humanities and Ethics, USC
- Todd Presner (UCLA, Germanic Languages, Comparative Literature, and Jewish Studies)
"Digital Humanities and Holocaust Studies: Challenges and Possibilities"
- Alina Bothe (Freie Universität Berlin/Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, History)
"Limits of Representation? Ethics of Digital Shoah History"
Chair: Elaine Gan, Digital Humanities, USC
- Tomasz Łysak (University of Warsaw, Applied Linguistics)
"Vlogging Auschwitz: Towards Netnography of Digital Autobiographical Documentary"
- Maria Zalewska (USC, Cinematic Arts)
"Pokémon in Auschwitz: New Encounters Between Augmented Reality Technologies, Spaces of Memory, and Places of Commemoration"
- Timothy Williams (University of Marburg, Conflict Studies and Political Science)
“Awful, but you have to go...” Memory in the Digital Sphere of Tripadvisor.com Reviews of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Cambodia
Piotr Florczyk (USC, Creative Writing)
Chair: Cyrus Shahabi, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Spatial Sciences, USC
- Alberto Giordano (Texas State University, Geography)
"The Expanded Potential of GIS for the Study of the Holocaust"
- Anne Kelly Knowles (University of Maine, History), Paul B. Jaskot (Duke University, Art History), Justus Hillebrand (University of Maine, History)
"GIS and Corpus Linguistics: Mixed Digital Methods for the Exploration of Forced Labor in Krakow District Ghettos"
- Tim Cole (University of Bristol, History), Alberto Giordano (Texas State University, Geography)
"GIS and Corpus Linguistics: Ghetto Space and the Place of the Ghetto in Budapest"
- Maël LeNoc (Texas State University, Geography)
"Using GIS to study family arrests and separations during the Holocaust in Italy"
Chair: Jason Lustig, History, UCLA
- Kia Hays (Program Manager of New Dimensions in Testimony, USC Shoah Foundation)
"An Introduction to New Dimensions in Testimony"
- Noah Shenker (Monash University, Holocaust and Genocide Studies) and Dan Leopard (Saint Mary’s College of California, Media and Communications)
“Pinchas Gutter:” The Virtual Holocaust Survivor as Embodied Archive
- Stephen Smith (USC Shoah Foundation)
"Interactive Holocaust Biography: Literacy, Memory, and History in the Digital Age"
Chair: Jeremy Mikecz, Digital Humanities and History, USC
- Erik Steiner (Stanford University, Digital Humanities), Anne Kelly Knowles (University of Maine, History)
"Ways of Seeing: Problems and Possibilities in Holocaust Visualization"
- Caroline Sturdy Colls (Staffordshire University, Forensic Archaeology and Genocide Investigation)
"Imagining the Unimaginable: Archeologically-derived Visualizations of Holocaust Landscapes"
- Anika Walke (Washington University in St. Louis, History)
"Visualizing the Holocaust in Belarus: Communal Experiences and Memories of Genocide
Chair: Gabor Toth, Digital Humanities and History, Yale University
- Paris Papamichos Chronakis (University of Illinois, Chicago, History)
"From the Lone Survivor to the Network Self. Social Networks Meet the Digital Holocaust Archive"
- Andrew Curtis (Kent State University, Geography), James Tyner (Kent State University, Geography), Sokvisal Kimsroy (Kent State University, Geography)
"Genocide Spatial Video Geo-narratives: Mapping the Personal Experiences of Victims of the Khmer Rouge"
- Eric Le Bourhis (FMS/ISP, History)
"Spatialization of the Holocaust and Digital Tools: The City of Paris as a local case study: research and curation"
Chair: Tara McPherson, Cinematic Arts and Media, USC
- Joanna Chen Cham (UCLA Library)
"Incorporating Emerging Literacies into Digital Approaches to Genocide Studies: Understanding the Value Systems, Methodologies, and Choices behind the Metadata"
- Adam Muller (University of Manitoba, English, Film, and Theatre), Struan Sinclair (University of Manitoba, English, Film, and Theatre), and Andrew Woolford (University of Manitoba, Sociology and Social Justice and Criminology)
"Embodying Empathy: Fostering Historical Knowledge and Caring Through a Virtual Indian Residential School in Canada"
Wolf Gruner, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research
