Special Edition of Holocaust Studies: Culture and History:
‘Holocaust Memory and Education in the Digital Age’
Digital media are playing an increasing role in Holocaust memory and education. These include digital mapping projects like http://www.danskejoederitheresienstadt.org, VR representations of former concentration and death camps, such as the one of Sobibór, viewable at Camp Vught in The Netherlands, interactive online archives that give researchers and learners the skills necessary to interpret documents at the Arolsen Archives (International Tracing Service), and 3-dimensional and holographic survivor talks in the US and UK. This special edition seeks to take stock of the wide range of digital projects in these fields and to consider the impact, challenges and potentials of such technologies for the future of Holocaust memory and education.
Given the increasing presence of Neo-Nazi, alt-right and Holocaust denial rhetoric in online spaces, and debates about the corporate responsibility of organisations like Google and Facebook, and platforms such as 4Chan and 8Chan, it seems particularly timely to address the roles digital technology can play in informing cultural and collective memory of the Holocaust and educating about this past. These issues raise a multitude of questions that we invite potential contributors to explore, including but not limited to:
· To what extent do digital Holocaust memory and education projects reiterate historical (pre-digital) practices of memorialisation, museology and pedagogy?
· To what extent can digital practices disrupt traditional ways of remembering and educating about the Holocaust? What are the challenges and opportunities of such disruptions, should they exist?
· Do digital technologies raise new questions regarding the ethics of Holocaust representation?
· What role can social media platforms and other digital forms play in democratizing Holocaust memory and education?
· How do algorithmic and surveillance capitalism risk complicating efforts for informed Holocaust education and memory?
· What are/should be/ could be the priorities of Holocaust memory and education for the future, through the use of digital technologies?
· Do we indeed really need digital technologies to help us to teach about and to remember the Holocaust?
· Is it the responsibility of those working in Holocaust museums, memorialisation and education to tackle digital forms of contemporary hate crime, antisemitism and Holocaust denial? If so, how might such fights be mobilised in productive ways? If not, whose responsibility is it?
· What are the limitations of different digital technologies and projects in the context of Holocaust memory and education?
· How does the digital open up new spaces for Holocaust memory and education, with new audiences?
· How do the tensions between techno-utopia, technological determinism and techno-scepticism play out in Holocaust memory and education?
· How do digital technologies offer potentials for radically rethinking our definitions of the Holocaust memorial, Holocaust memorial museums, and Holocaust education?
Please send abstracts of 200-300 words with a clear title and author biograph (or no more than 100 words) to Victoria Grace Walden at: v.walden@sussex.ac.uk by 20th November 2019. Completed articles of 8,000 – 10,000 words should be submitted by the end of March 2020.
Kindest regards
Victoria Walden
University of Sussex
