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Igor Bartosik obtained his PhD from the Pedagogical University in Cracow in 2002. His historical research concerns the construction of gas chambers and crematoria. He is author of the book I was at the Auschwitz Crematorium. A conversation with Henryk Mandelbaum former prisoner and member of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz (2005) and The Sonderkommando revolt October 7, 1944 (2019). Other publications include, for example, The Origins of the Birkenau Camp in the Light of the Sources (together with Łukasz Martyniak and Piotr Setkiewicz) (2017), The Origins of the Auschwitz Camp in the Light of Source Materials (together with Łukasz Martyniak and Piotr Setkiewicz) (2018), and Świadkowie z dna piekła. Historia Sonderkommando w KL Auschwitz (Witnesses from the Bottom of Hell. History of the Sonderkommando in KL Auschwitz) (2021). Bartosik works at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum since 1992.
Asia Beattie graduated from UBC with a double major in Modern European Studies and History with a focus on Polish studies, taking also several courses at the University of Warsaw and Catholic University of Lublin. Beattie participated in Witnessing Auschwitz 2014, and has remained involved with program ever since.
Adelina Hetnar-Michaldo graduated in Jewish Studies and Culture Management from the Jagiellonian University of Cracow and completed Postgraduate Studies in Museology. She has worked at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum since 2010. She started as a guide, then joined the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust in April 2013. Hetnar-Michaldo is responsible for preparing educational projects for teachers and youth. She coordinates seminars, study stays and educational sessions.
Bożena Karwowska is Professor of Polish and Slavic Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Chair of Modern European Studies, and the program director for the Witnessing Auschwitz International Seminar. Karwowska completed a Master’s degree at the University of Warsaw in 1977, followed by a Master’s degree and a PhD at UBC in 1989 and 1995 respectively. Her fields of interest include reader response criticism, body and sexuality, the literary representation of women in Slavic literatures and the exile and immigration. She published numerous articles and books, including, for example, Kobieta-Literatura-Historia / Woman-Literature-History (2016), Druga płeć na wygnaniu. Doświadczenie migracyjne w opowieści powojennych pisarek polskich / Second Sex in Exile. Migration in Narratives by Polish Postwar Female Writers (2013) and Ciało. Seksualność. Obozy Zagłady / Gender, Sexuality, Concentration Camps (2009).
Jacek Lachendro is the Deputy Head of the Research Centre at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. He studied history at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and completed his PhD with a dissertation entitled “The press of the Krakow voivodeship in the years 1918-1939“. His research interests include issues related to the history of Auschwitz concentration camp (e.g., the fate of Polish elites, the fate of Soviet POWs, prisoners’ orchestras, escapes from the camp), the displacement of people from Oświęcim and the surrounding area in 1940-1941, as well as post-camp areas from the liberation to the creation of the Museum. Lachendro has published numerous articles and books, such as, for example, Auschwitz from A to Z. An Illustrated History of the Camp (2014) (together with Piotr Setkiewicz and Piotr M. A. Cywiński), Auschwitz after Liberation (2015) or Soviet Prisoners of War in KL Auschwitz (2016).
Tricia Logan is an Assistant Professor at the UBC School of lnformation and a Visiting Researcher at the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. Tricia is a Métis scholar with more than 20 years of experience working with Indigenous communities in Canada. She has held roles at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Métis Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the Legacy of Hope Foundation. She has a Master of Arts in Native Studies from the University of Manitoba, and completed her PhD in History at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her PhD is entitled Indian Residential Schools, Settler Colonialism and Their Narratives in Canadian History. Originally from Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Tricia has worked with Survivors of residential schools, completed research on the Métis experience in residential schools, and worked with Métis communities on a Michif language revitalization project.
Tomasz Michaldo graduated in history from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, where he specialized in Judaic Studies. He completed his Postgraduate Studies in Museology at the same university. Michaldo started as a guide at the Auschwitz Museum and since 2013 works in the Methodology of Guided Tours. He is responsible for cooperation with guides, training and recruitment of candidates for guides, and improving the qualifications of guides cooperating with the Museum.
Anja Nowak holds a degree in Theatre, Film and Media Studies and Comparative Literature from the Goethe University Frankfurt and received her PhD from the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies at UBC in 2018. Nowak’s research focuses on spatial phenomena in the context of the Holocaust, as well as on the works of Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin. She authored several articles in the field of theatre and performance studies, as well as in media and literature. In 2012 she published a monograph entitled Elemente einer Ästhetik des Theatralen in Adornos Ästhetischer Theorie / Elements of an Aesthetics of the Theatrical in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory. She is also editor of Volume 9 (Rundfunkarbeiten) of the new critical edition of Walter Benjamin’s collected works (2017) (together with Thomas Küpper).
Jadwiga Pinderska-Lech is the Head of the Publication Department at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Pinderska-Lech studied Polish and Italian Philology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and Romanic Philology at the Bertolt Brecht Research Center in Augsburg, Germany. After that, she completed Postgraduate Studies in Publishing Policy and Bookselling at the University of Warsaw. She has been working at the Museum since 2003. Since 2018, she is the Chair of the Memorial Foundation for the Victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Piotr Setkiewicz is the Director of the Research Centre at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. He is a graduate of the Faculty of History at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and obtained his PhD from the University of Silesia in Katowice with a dissertation entitled “IG Farben-Werk Auschwitz 1941-1945”. His research interests include the employment of prisoners in German industry and the history of the Auschwitz sub-camps. Setkiewicz authored numerous articles and books on the subject, including, for example, The History of the IG Farben Werk Auschwitz Camps, 1941-1945 (2001), Auschwitz from A to Z. An Illustrated History of the Camp (together with Jacek Lachendro and Piotr M. A. Cywiński) (2014) and The Origins of the Auschwitz Camp in the Light of Source Materials (together with Igor Bartosik and Łukasz Martyniak) (2018). Dr. Setkiewicz is editor-in-chief of Auschwitz Studies (Zeszyty Oświęcimskie).
Andrzej Strzelecki holds a doctorate in humanitarian sciences and is the author of numerous books and other publications related to the history of the KL Auschwitz, including, for example, Evacuation. Liquidation and Liberation of KL Auschwitz, The Deportation of Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to KL Auschwitz and Their Extermination and Extermination of Jews from Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (Poland) in KL Auschwitz. Strzelecki worked at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum from 1964-2011.
Wanda Witek-Malicka studied sociology at the University of Silesia and obtained her PhD with a dissertation entitled “Adaptation and defense strategies of KL Auschwitz prisoners”. Witek-Malicka has worked in the Research Center since 2018. Her research interests include camp socio-cultural issues, the fate of the youngest prisoners of KL Auschwitz, KZ-Syndrom, post-camp trauma and the return of prisoners to life in freedom. She published several articles and a monograph entitled Dzieci z Auschwitz-Birkenau / Children from Auschwitz-Birkenau (2013).
Teresa Wontor-Cichy is a historian in the Research Centre at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. She started working at the Museum after receiving a Master’s degree in history from the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland in 1993. Her thesis topic was on social welfare in 16th Century Poland. Wontor-Cichy authored numerous historical publications exploring the experiences of different prisoner groups, such as, for example, Imprisoned for Their Faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses in KL Auschwitz (2006) or or Życie religijne więźniów chrześcijańskich w KL Auschwitz / Religious life of Christian prisoners in KL Auschwitz (2019). She has been a lecturer and academic advisor for various academic workshops and programs worldwide. Wontor-Cichy also developed online lessons on The Roma in Auschwitz, The Clergy and Religious Life in Auschwitz and Criminal Experiments in Auschwitz.
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Helena Bryn-McLeod is a Grade 9 teacher living in Nelson, BC, who specializes in French, history, social justice, and mental health topics. She is nearing the end of her Masters in counselling psychology and will open her own counselling practice in the coming year. She loves learning about Indigenous ways of knowing, trauma informed practice, and social-emotional intelligence. On her weekends off, she snowboards, reads, and makes art.
Suyesha Dutta received her B.A. from the University of British Columbia in History and Modern European Studies. At UBC, she was President of the History Students Association, a Teaching Assistant in the department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, and a Research Assistant at the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. She participated in the Witnessing Auschwitz Seminar in Poland in 2019, and later co-organized and presented at the Witnessing Auschwitz Student Conference the same year. She went on to graduate with an MSc in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Oxford, where she was President of the Oxford South Asian Society. She is currently working with a firm in central London as their Business Development Executive.
Mikiko Galpin is a Witnessing Auschwitz graduate from 2016. Kiko graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UBC and has published both fiction and nonfiction works exploring the experiences of marginalized identities. Kiko’s play, Go For Broke, was produced for the 2015 Brave New Play Rites Festival and Kiko’s comic work is also published independently. Through the Witnessing Auschwitz 2016 program, Kiko published a paper titled A Cycle of Persecution: Romani Culture and the Baro Porajmos which investigates the ongoing violence against the Romani people. Kiko is currently pursuing a J.D. at Temple University Beasley School of Law with the hopes of working in atrocity prevention.
Charlotte Gibbs graduated from UBC with a dual degree in History and Modern European Studies, with a focus on Holocaust Studies. She plans to continue her research on women in Auschwitz during her Masters degree and remain involved in the Witnessing Auschwitz program.
Carlos Halaburda received his PhD from Northwestern University in 2021 and is now a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at The University of Toronto. Halaburda specializes in literary representations of eugenics in nineteenth-century Latin American literature and theatre. His current book manuscript, The Erotics of Supremacy: Melodrama and the Queer Futures of Whiteness in Belle Époque Latin America, examines how the criollo elites associated whiteness with heteronormativity and reproductive futurity in their literary experiments, including novels, medical studies, crónicas, and plays. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in journals such as Taller de Letras and Latin American Theatre Review. He has upcoming articles to be published by Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Symposium, and Metales Pesados.
Rachel Karasenty Saltoun is a UBC alumni holding a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. During her time at UBC, she held the position of head research assistant at the Social Health Lab and collaborated with the Sustainability Solutions Applied Physics Lab. She additionally coordinated the UBC Witnessing Auschwitz Student Conference of 2019 and participated as a panelist in the Holocaust Memorial Symposium held at UBC in 2020. She is currently completing a Master’s in Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Puloma Kaushal is a UBC Alumni who graduated with a Bachelor of Science Honors in Global Health and Nutrition in May 2021. She developed an interest in Holocaust Studies while being enrolled in UBC courses CENES 303B as well as the 2021 Witnessing Auschwitz Seminar. She was the Conference Organizer for Witnessing Auschwitz 2021 as well as a Course Developer for CENES 403 which focuses on investigating genocide within a Canadian context. For this project, Puloma has created a presentation on Food in Auschwitz in which she explores various roles of food within the camp and how they were used as a means of otherizing prisoners from and staff as well as each other.
Sarai Rasmidatta is completing her Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in History and Modern European Studies. Sarai has merged her newfound knowledge of the Holocaust, cultivated through study in the Witnessing Auschwitz Seminar of 2021, with her personal interest in film, for the creation of the video analysis included on the website.
Macy Richards is a student at the University of British Columbia. She is in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology and archeology. She is currently an undergraduate teaching assistant for the Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies course “Representations of the Holocaust.”
Lisa Rutloh is currently in her final year at UBC, majoring in Modern European Studies. She has taken several Holocaust courses, including CENS303B and HIST441, and has also taken part in the Witnessing Auschwitz Seminar over the past summer. She is currently taking Directed Studies in CENS404 and also helped to organize and present at the Witnessing Auschwitz Conference.
Erin Salh obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice from the University of British Columbia in 2021. Her primary focus throughout her studies was to centralize the experiences of marginalized groups, including women on the basis of race and social economic status. In addition, Salh dedicated much of her electives to the Central, Eastern and Northern Studies program, in which she fostered a great interest in the Holocaust. It was here that she combined her two passions of social justice and history to discuss the genocide and injustices that occurred during the Second World War.
Marcie Schlick is a recent UBC graduate with a double major in Political Science and Modern European Studies. She was an undergraduate TA for the CENS303 courses at UBC as well as a student project worker who helped organize this year’s online format of the Witnessing Auschwitz program. Her academic endeavours at UBC have been centered around themes of intranational conflicts, civil violence and human rights. During this year’s seminar, she took on a special interest in the topic of spaces within Auschwitz, more specifically, how particular spaces can challenge and redefine preconceived ideas of societies and value systems.
Herleen Sharma is a UBC graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and a concentration in Sociology. As an undergraduate, she developed a keen interest in the medical crimes that occurred in Auschwitz after taking ‘CENS 303B: Representations of the Holocaust’ with Professor Bozena Karwowska. This interest led her to participate in the Witnessing Auschwitz program, which ultimately contributed to this website project by mapping the locations of medical facilities in the Auschwitz camps. She hopes to apply the skills she has developed from this experience to her pursuit of graduate studies in the coming academic year.
Meredith Shaw is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, where she completed her undergraduate degree in History and International Relations, and her Law degree. While a student, she was fortunate to take part in the Witnessing Auschwitz program at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Meredith has worked and volunteered as a researcher and educator in the areas of Holocaust studies and human rights law.
Sydney Syona Singh is a a fourth year Creative Writing Major at UBC Vancouver. She writes in a variety of genres including poetry, screenplay with her favourite being comics. Sidney attended the Virtual Witnessing Auschwitz Seminar in summer 2021. She enjoys producing her own comics and hopes to do more scholarly research on comics in the future.
Jonathan Tee is currently working as a student recruitment officer in higher education, Jonathan’s interests in history mainly revolve around World War II, Empires, and Military history. Vancouver-born and raised Jonathan acquired his Bachelors in History at the University of British Columbia in 2018. Having volunteered extensively with youth and young adults his professional passion currently revolves around young people and education.
Indigo Ward is majoring at the University of British Columbia in Political Science in 2022. She was born in the United States, grew up in Canada, and completed her high school studies in Mexico before coming to UBC. Throughout these moves, she did not discover an interest in topics of the Holocaust and survivors until a CENS 303 course at UBC. This course sparked her interest in the subject and specifically through the stories and journeys of survivors. This called into question the assumptions and accuracy of historical fiction novels as generally used in high school curriculums and ended up inspiring her project.
Nina Weng is an undergraduate student double majoring in History and Human Geography at UBC. She was one of the student organizers of the Witnessing Auschwitz Conference in 2021 and currently an undergraduate teaching assistant for ‘CENS 303B: Representations of the Holocaust’.
Alexandra Wickett attended the Witnessing Auschwitz program as an undergraduate student in May of 2015. Alexandra graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in history. Alexandra then attended the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law where she graduated with a Juris Doctor degree in 2020. Alexandra currently practices law at a firm in downtown Vancouver.