Special Events

The conference program will include a special screening of Andrzej Munk’s unfinished masterpiece Passenger (1963), followed by an interactive discussion with a panel of guest speakers. Many thanks to Second Run DVD for making this screening possible. Additional public film screenings will be organised around the formal program.

The conference will open with a plenary panel of scholars and practitioners in the fields of Holocaust and genocide research, remembrance, and education. Confirmed speakers include:

Dr Avril Alba, University of Sydney

Avril is the Roth Lecturer in Holocaust Studies and Jewish Civilisation in the Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney. She teaches and researches in the broad areas of Holocaust and modern Jewish history with a focus on Jewish and Holocaust museums and is currently completing on a book-length monograph exploring the largely unexamined topic of museums as sacred spaces (Palgrave MacMillan 2015). From 2002-2011 Avril was the Education Director at the Sydney Jewish Museum where she also served as the Project Director/Curator for the permanent exhibition Culture and Continuity in 2008-09. She continues to serve as the consulting lead curator for the museum’s permanent Holocaust exhibition. Avril’s other research interests include Australian Holocaust memory, the ‘activist’ museum, onsite Holocaust education and pre-war Jewish museums and exhibitions.

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 Jayne Josem, Jewish Holocaust Centre

Jayne is Curator and Head of Collections at the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne, where she has been since 2001, following completion of a Masters in Public History at Monash University. Jayne completed the total overhaul of the JHC’s permanent museum display in 2010 and has recently worked on projects to enhance the Centre’s videotestimony collection and create cutting-edge digital media technologies, including digital StoryPod applications which communicate survivor narratives in an interactive form.

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Sally Morgan, Rwandan Stories

Sally is a passionate teacher and key founding member of the Rwandan Stories and Vanishing Point projects, which involve working on the ground with survivors of the Rwandan genocide to create short films and teaching materials to commemorate and educate about the genocide and Rwandan history more broadly. The Rwandan Stories website was awarded the prestigious Best Online United Nations Peace Award in 2011.

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Philip Cookson, Philology

Philip is the CEO and Director of Research at Philology Pty. Ltd., which designs and creates interactive digital media solutions leveraging the latest PC and mobile device technologies. Philology was responsible for the development and implementation of the Jewish Holocaust Centre’s  interactive technology (2011 MAGNA Award Winner), and the recently released JHC StoryPod iPhone/iPad applications (2013 Melbourne Design Finalist Mobile Applications), which communicate survivor narratives in an interactive form.

The conference will be followed by a free public film screening event from 7pm on Wednesday 9 July. The Academy Award-winning film The Counterfeiters will be viewed followed by a guest speaker presentation and interactive audience discussion. Many thanks to Amalgamated Movies for making this screening possible.