Holocaust Scholar to Lecture on Poetry as a Form of Resistance
Alan Rosen, a renowned scholar of Holocaust literature, will give a lecture titled “The Words, Too, Will Nourish: Poetry and Resistance” on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture, supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish Christian Understanding, is free and open to the public.
Rosen’s lecture will question if poetry written during and in the aftermath of the Holocaust is a form of resistance. If so, he asks, how and what does it resist? Rosen will draw on, among others, the poetry of Avraham Sutzkever.
Rosen studied under the supervision of renowned Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. He has taught Holocaust literature at colleges and universities in the U.S. and Israel, including Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem.
Rosen has held fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research, the Katz Center for Advanced Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Archives for the History of American Psychology at the University of Akron.
His books include The Wonder of Their Voices: The 1946 Holocaust Interviews of David Boder (Oxford University Press, 2010), Sounds of Defiance: The Holocaust, Multilingualism, and the Problem of English (University of Nebraska Press, 2005) and Dislocating the End: Climax, Closure and the Invention of Genre (Peter Lang Publishing, 2001).
To learn more about this event and find lectures online, visit www.holycross.edu/mcfarlandcenter.
About the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:
Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College’s commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope. The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.
For additional information, please contact Cristal Steuer at 508-793-2419.