Burned in Memory? The Changing Meanings of Smyrna
Presented By
The Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Speaker(s)
Jeffrey Olick, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and History
University of Virginia
Location
ASCSA Cotsen Hall - Hybrid Lectures, Anapiron Polemou 9, Athens 106 76Anapiron Polemou 9
Athens 106 76
By registering you will be able to submit your questions through Q&A on Zoom.
About the lecture
Olick is a key figure in contemporary cultural sociology and sociological theory and his work has played a major role in reviving the concept of "collective memory." His empirical work focuses on Holocaust memory in postwar Germany, tracing the ways in which state leaders grapple with the difficult legacy of the Nazi past. He will lecture on the way that the burning of Smyrna has shaped collective memories about the Greek Anatolian past, the traumatic events of the war, and the displacement of populations.
About the speaker
Jeffrey Olick is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia (USA). Olick received a B.A. with High Honors from Swarthmore College (1986) and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale (1993). Before joining the faculty at UVa, Olick was a member of the sociology department faculty at Columbia University in New York City for eleven years. He has written extensively about commemorative politics and culture, with a particular focus on post World War Two Germany. His books include: In the House of the Hangman: The Agonies of German Defeat, 1943-1949; The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility; The Sins of the Fathers: Germany, Memory, Method; and, as editor, The Collective Memory Reader, among others.