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April 1 Talk at Smith Examines American
Encounters
With the Holocaust in '60s Media Popular Culture
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- Smith
College will host a talk by Jeffrey Shandler, scholar of
modern Jewish culture and assistant professor of Jewish studies
at Rutgers University, at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 1
in Seelye Hall 106. The event is free, open to the public
and wheelchair accessible.
Shandler's talk, "Aliens in the Wasteland: American
Encounters with the Holocaust on '60s Science Fiction Television
Series," will address the ways in which mediations have
provided most Americans with their primary encounter with
the Holocaust; films and television programs, in particular,
have played a strategic role in defining the Holocaust as
an important moral paradigm in American public culture.
By examining episodes of two science fiction series of
the 1960s -- "The Twilight Zone" and the original "Star
Trek" -- Shandler will consider the distinctive ways
television has shaped Americans' understanding of the Holocaust
These two programs, which offer highly imaginative retellings
of the Holocaust in otherworldly settings, demonstrate how
television has facilitated an American conceptualization
of the Holocaust as a morally galvanizing event of universal
significance. They also provide compelling examples of how
the medium makes use of key images and themes associated
with the Holocaust to create fictional retellings of this
chapter of history in ways that link its significance to
the ethical concerns of contemporary American life.
Shandler holds a doctorate in Yiddish Studies from Columbia
University and has been a Dorot Teaching Fellow in the Skirball
Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University,
as well as a post-doctoral fellow at the Annenberg School
for Communication and the Center for Judaic Studies, University
of Pennsylvania. In addition, Shandler has taught at the
Jewish Theological Seminary, Tel Aviv University and Vassar
College.
Shandler has written and lectured widely on modern Yiddish
culture; American responses to the Holocaust; and the role
that broadcasting, film, photography and other media play
in modern Jewish life. He is the author of "While America
Watches: Televising the Holocaust," awarded the 1999-2000
Saul Viener Prize by the American Jewish Historical Society
as the work that made the most significant contribution to
the field of American Jewish history.
He is the editor of "Awakening Lives: Autobiographies
of Jewish Youth in Poland before the Holocaust" (Yale
University Press, 2002), which was a Dorot Jewish Book Award
finalist. Shandler's other publications include "Entertaining
America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting" (Princeton
University Press, 2003; co-author/co-editor with J. Hoberman), "Remembering
the Lower East Side: American Jewish Reflections" (Indiana
University Press, 2000; co-editor, with Hasia Diner and Beth
S. Wenger) and "Profiles of a Lost World: Memoirs of
East European Jewish Life before World War II by Hirsz Abramowicz" (Wayne
State University Press, 1999; co-editor, with Dina Abramowicz).
His translations of Yiddish literature include Mani-Leyb's
children's classic "Yingl-Tsingl-Khvat" (Moyer
Bell, 1986) and have been aired on National Public Radio
and published in The Forward.
Shandler has curated exhibitions for The Jewish Museum in
New York ("Entertaining America: Jews, Movies and Broadcasting," 2003),
the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia
("Holy Land: American Encounters with the Land of Israel
in the Century before Statehood," 1998), and the YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research ("Sholem Aleichem in America," 1990).
Currently Shandler is completing a study of Yiddish culture
after World War II. During the 2003-2004 academic year he
is a visiting scholar at the Center for Media and Religion
at New York University.
Shandler's talk is sponsored by the Lucius N. Littauer
Fund in Jewish Studies, the Film Studies Program and the
Lecture Committee.
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Office of College
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Smith College
Garrison Hall
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063 |
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Marti
Hobbes
News Assistant
T (413) 585-2190
F (413) 585-2174
mhobbes@email.smith.edu
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