Join the International Writers Series for an evening of poetry in translation with poet, translator, and scholar Mona Kareem. She will be joined in conversation by Safa Khatib, Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature.
International Writers Series: Mona Kareem
Join the International Writers Series for an evening of poetry in translation with poet, translator, and scholar Mona Kareem. She will be joined in conversation by Safa Khatib, Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature.
In this book presentation, Ignacio Infante, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish, will discuss his latest scholarly monograph, A Planetary Avant-Garde.
Book Talk: Ignacio Infante
In this book presentation, Ignacio Infante, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish, will discuss his latest scholarly monograph, A Planetary Avant-Garde.
The Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1700– 1840)
Balancing Loyalties between State, Nationality, Citizenship, and the Global Church - conference
Umrath Hall, Umrath Lounge
The Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1700– 1840)
Balancing Loyalties between State, Nationality, Citizenship, and the Global Church - conference
Umrath Hall, Umrath Lounge
Please join us for a two-day conference on “The Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1700– 1840): Balancing Loyalties between State, Nationality, Citizenship, and the Global Church.”
The Enlightenment, it has now been established, was as much a religious phenomenon as it was a secular one. This conference brings together leading scholars from around the world to interrogate the ways in which Catholics, in particular, interpreted and extended Enlightenment ideas to rethink and reform society, politics, the economy, education, science, and the arts on a global scale.
The conference will take place:
Friday, September 20 (8:30am-3:30pm): Pere Marquette Gallery, 2nd Floor DuBourg Hall, Saint Louis University; piano recital at 5:30pm, Cupples House
Saturday, September 21 (9am-5:30pm): Umrath Lounge, Umrath Hall, Washington University in St. Louis
Registration is free and open to the public. Please register here. Registrants are welcome to attend all or a portion of the conference.
See here for more information and a detailed program listing speakers and topics.
Please contact crgc@slu.edu with any questions or accommodations requests.
This conference is co-sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis (with support from the Center for the Humanities), Saint Louis University’s Center for Research on Global Catholicism, and the University of Münster.
Join us to celebrate the centenary of William H. Gass (1924-2017), renowned fiction writer, essayist, and Washington University professor emeritus. A panel of former students and colleagues of Gass will discuss his influence on their lives and careers. Then, WashU’s Martin Riker will interview novelist and Conjunctions editor Bradford Morrow to discuss Morrow’s long friendship and professional relationship with Gass. A reception and exhibit viewing will follow these talks.
Free and open to all. Registration is required.
Holmes Lounge, Olin Library, and Zoom
William H. Gass Centenary Celebration
Join us to celebrate the centenary of William H. Gass (1924-2017), renowned fiction writer, essayist, and Washington University professor emeritus. A panel of former students and colleagues of Gass will discuss his influence on their lives and careers. Then, WashU’s Martin Riker will interview novelist and Conjunctions editor Bradford Morrow to discuss Morrow’s long friendship and professional relationship with Gass. A reception and exhibit viewing will follow these talks.
Free and open to all. Registration is required.
Holmes Lounge, Olin Library, and Zoom |
Schedule of events:
Panel Discussion 3 pm, Holmes Lounge (In-Person or Zoom)
The panelists for “The Legacy of William H. Gass” discussion include:
Patrick Davis – Unbound Editions Press
Michelle Komie – Princeton University Press
Gerhild Williams – Washington University in St. Louis
Ted Morrissey, Independent Scholar and Publisher (Moderator)
A Conversation with Bradford Morrow 4:15 pm, Holmes Lounge (In-Person or Zoom)
Bradford Morrow (Bard College) in conversation with Martin Riker (Washington University in St. Louis).
Reception and “Fifty New Acquisitions” Exhibition Viewing 5:30 pm, Olin Library Ginkgo Reading Room (In-person only)
A reception with light hors d’oeuvres and wine follows the celebration’s discussions. An exhibition viewing will be available simultaneously in the adjacent Grand Staircase and Special Collections Reading Room.
Join us for a faculty book talk with André Fischer, assistant professor of German at WashU. Fischer will discuss his new book, The Aesthetics of Mythmaking in German Postwar Culture, published by Northwestern University Press in 2024.
Free and open to all, registration requested.
Olin Library 142
Book Talk with André Fischer
Join us for a faculty book talk with André Fischer, assistant professor of German at WashU. Fischer will discuss his new book, The Aesthetics of Mythmaking in German Postwar Culture, published by Northwestern University Press in 2024.
Free and open to all, registration requested.
We are pleased to announce the next International Writers Series event. Join us for International Writers Series: New Poetry From Europe on Monday, November 11 at 5:30pm in the Ginkgo Reading Room of Olin Library.
International Writers Series
We are pleased to announce the next International Writers Series event. Join us for International Writers Series: New Poetry From Europe on Monday, November 11 at 5:30pm in the Ginkgo Reading Room of Olin Library.
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Join us for International Writers Series: New Poetry From Europe on Monday, November 11 at 5:30pm in the Ginkgo Reading Room of Olin Library. Poets Efe Duyan, Marko Pogačar, and Ales Steger join us under the auspices of Versopolis, an online European poetry platform for emerging European poets. They will read poetry in their original languages (Croatian, Turkish, and Slovenian) and in English translation, and discuss the work of creating lyric connections across borders and languages. The discussion will be moderated by series curator Matthias Goeritz.
The Evolution of Mass Murder: Forensic Archaeological Perspectives on Mass Violence at the Treblinka Labor and Extermination Camps
Caroline Sturdy Colls, Professor of Holocaust Archaeology and Genocide Investigation, and the Director of the Center of Archaeology at the University of Huddersfield (UK) - Annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture
Hillman Hall, Clark-Fox Forum
The Evolution of Mass Murder: Forensic Archaeological Perspectives on Mass Violence at the Treblinka Labor and Extermination Camps
Caroline Sturdy Colls, Professor of Holocaust Archaeology and Genocide Investigation, and the Director of the Center of Archaeology at the University of Huddersfield (UK) - Annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture
Hillman Hall, Clark-Fox Forum |
The crimes perpetrated at Treblinka extermination camp – which operated from 23 July 1942 until the autumn of 1943 – are well documented by historians. Although few obvious traces exist in the landscape today, the complex of gas chambers, mass graves, cremation pyres, undressing barracks, fences and railway lines that existed here facilitated the annihilation of between 800,000 and 1 million Jews and an unknown number of non-Jewish Poles, Roma and POWs. Despite the notoriety of the camp, investigations of the physical evidence connected to the extermination practices were limited to those undertaken between 1944–46 until forensic archaeological works were initiated by Caroline Sturdy Colls. A combination of archival research, remote sensing, geophysical survey and excavations has since revealed new information about the mechanisms of mass murder, the experiences of the victims and the locations of many important buildings, mass graves and infrastructure. Hence, this work has generated new spatial and material understandings of the processes of extermination within the death camp.
Caroline Sturdy Colls (at right)
The boundaries of the extermination camp do not define the geographical parameters in which atrocities were perpetrated at Treblinka. Recent research has also demonstrated that Treblinka labour camp and nearby burial sites were also places where mass violence was perpetrated in the extreme. Forensic archaeological investigations at these sites have revealed the range of methods used to torture and kill Jews and non-Jewish Poles, as well as the architecture and killing sites which were used to facilitate this.
Therefore, drawing upon recent historical and archaeological research, this lecture will discuss the evolution of mass violence and murder at Treblinka before, during and after Operation Reinhard. It will consider how geography and (deceptive) narratives surrounding the labor camp were used to facilitate mass killings between 1941 and 1944, and explore the relationships that existed between the camps and killing sites that existed within the space. As well as considering the actions of the perpetrators and experiences of the victims, Caroline Sturdy Colls will discuss the material traces of extermination such as newly discovered mass graves and punishment sites. Ultimately, she will show that the systematic murder of Jews at Treblinka, and their burial within the campscape, began long before the notorious extermination camp was constructed.
Caroline Sturdy Colls
About the speaker
Caroline Sturdy Colls is a professor of Holocaust archaeology and genocide investigation and the director of the Center of Archaeology at the University of Huddersfield (UK). Her expertise lies in the investigation of Holocaust landscapes and other sites of mass and interpersonal violence using forensic archaeological approaches. Since 2010, Sturdy Colls has conducted the first archaeological investigations at the Treblinka extermination and labor camps, and she recently completed her monograph Finding Treblinka (Cornell University Press, 2025), which will provide new historical, spatial and material perspectives on the crimes perpetrated there. She has also supervised projects at more than 60 other Holocaust sites. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator on the project “Trawniki: Nexus of the Final Solution”, funded by the Claims Conference. She is also supervising a post-doctoral research project regarding mass grave investigation in Ukraine and has a long-running collaborative project with the Lake District Holocaust Project. Prof. Sturdy Colls has published extensively on the subjects of Holocaust archaeology, forensic archaeology and missing persons. Her notable and recent monographs include Holocaust Archaeologies: Approaches and Future Directions (2015), The Handbook on Missing Persons (2016) and ‘Adolf Island’: The Nazi Occupation of Alderney (2022). Sturdy Colls was a visiting fellow at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016. In the same year, she was awarded the European Archaeological Heritage Prize for her work in modern conflict archaeology.
The 2024 Holocaust Memorial Lecture is supported by the Office of the Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. Free and open to all. Reception to follow lecture.
Questions? Please contact the chair of the Holocaust Memorial Lecture Committee, Prof. Anika Walke.
