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Book launch of ‘Two Roses’ at Toronto Holocaust Museum – Mar 25, 2026

Categoriesbook launch, events, PanelsPosted on

We are delighted to announce that the Toronto Holocaust Museum will host the book launch of our graphic novel Two Roses: A Story of Deception and Determination in Nazi Germany on March 25, 2026. Developed by graphic artist Miriam Libicki, Two Roses depicts the story of Holocaust survivor Rose Lipszyc and her aunt Róza Finkielsztaj in Nazi Germany.

The program will include a panel conversation with Rose Lipszyc, Miriam Libicki, and co-editors Mark Celinscak and Charlotte Schallié. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Sara R. Horowitz (York University). Copies of the book will be available for purchase, and be purchased online at the University of Toronto Press.

Registration is free of charge, and guests may explore the galleries and engage with Rose’s testimony as part of the museum experience before the event.

For more information, visit the Toronto Holocaust Museum‘s page: https://torontoholocaustmuseum.org/events/two-roses-book-launch

We sincerely thank the dedicated team at the Toronto Holocaust Museum for their coordination of the book launch and making this a special event to honour Rose and her legacy of Holocaust education.

We would also like to acknowledge this event was made possible with additional funding support from the Government of Canada’s Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program’s new initiative, the National Holocaust Remembrance Program (NHRP). This program supports initiatives that seek to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and help improve Canadians’ understanding and awareness of the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism.

Please register in advance, as space is limited, and we look forward to seeing you there!

Stuttgarter Comic Days hosts Jared Muralt – Mar 14, 2026

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On March 14, 2026, Jared Muralt will join a panel discussion at the Stuttgarter Comic Days in Germany, where he will discuss several of his projects, including the graphic novel he is developing as part of our SCVN project.

Jared is the graphic artist behind Ružica’s Last Summer, the graphic novel which explores the lived experience of Ružica, a survivor of the Yugoslav wars. We are delighted that Jared will be sharing this work in the comics scene in Germany!

Visit the festival’s website here to know more about the programme and Jared’s contribution.

You can also check out the Yugoslav Wars Research Cluster page here to learn more about the research and creation process of Ružica’s Last Summer.

Goethe Institute in Rome features exhibition of Barbara Yelin’s art

Categoriesevents, exhibitsPosted on

An exhibition of Barbara Yelin’s original drawings, including works from Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory, opened on January 22 in Rome at the Goethe Institute. The exhibition, titled “Drawing Lives: Memory and Biography in the Work of Barbara Yelin,” features 80 panels from Yelin’s major works and will be on display until March 20, 2026.

Barbara Yelin at the Goethe-Institut exhibit in Rome. Photo courtesy of the Villa Massimo, photo credit: Alberto Novelli.

Describing Yelin’s work, the exhibition writes that, “Her palette opens spaces in which memory becomes a living experience, inviting us to encounter others and, inevitably, ourselves. Barbara Yelin’s drawings and narratives open a space that accepts many perspectives, which invites us to listen to the pain of others and to endure contradictions…”

This exhibit was developed in collaboration with the German Academy of Rome Villa Massimo (where Barbara has a 1-year artist residency), the New Academy of Fine Arts, ARF! The Comics Festival, and the European Library. The exhibition is also part of the Rome Capitale initiative “Memory Generates Future 2026.”

More information, including opening times and the gallery’s location, is available on the Goethe Institute website.

Page from ‘Emmie Arbel. Die Farbe der Erinnerung / Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory’ (2023).

Mark Celinscak and Miriam Libicki present at Jewish American & Holocaust Literature Symposium – Feb 2, 2026

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SCVN graphic artist Miriam Libicki and Holocaust Research Cluster Co-Lead Mark Celinscak attended the Jewish America & Holocaust Literature Symposium’s 30th annual conference from February 1 – 3, 2026 at Tulane University in New Orleans.

On February 2, they presented in a panel titled “Two Roses: Utilizing Holocaust Survivor Testimony in Graphic Art Narratives,” moderated by Oren Baruch Stier (Florida International University). The discussion focused on the project’s upcoming publication of the graphic novel Two Roses: A Story of Deception and Determination in Nazi Germany, and was an excellent opportunity to share insights from their collaboration with new audiences. Two Roses is will be released on February 24, and is available for advance purchase by the University of Toronto Press here.

Miriam Libicki (left) and Mark Celinscake (right) with a pre-publication, printed copy of Two Roses at JAHLIT, 2026.
Image gallery image
Image gallery image

Thank you to the Jewish America & Holocaust Literature Symposium for hosting Mark and Miriam!

‘Trauma-Informed Research Ethics’: Roundtable discussion at Emily Carr University – Feb 9

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On February 9, Dr. Charlotte Schallié, co-director of SCVN, will take part in a roundtable discussion focused on the ethical considerations and protocols of arts-based research with trauma survivors.

Organized by the Emily Carr University Research Ethics Board (ECU-REB), the event will take place in person at the Emily Carr University, Boardroom (D2315) and online via Microsoft Teams (registration required).

Charlotte will be joined by Dr. Alla Gadassik, an animation scholar and curator whose work focuses on media materiality, creative labour, and animation exhibition practices. You can find more details about the speakers here.

Register here

Personal Histories in the Public Archive: Archiving the Klaus Zwilsky Story – Webinar – Jan 29

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Aubrey Pomerance working with objects from the Zwilsky collection at the
Jewish Museum Berlin. Photo credit Charlotte Schallié.

What happens when family history becomes part of the public archive?

Join us for a presentation and discussion with Aubrey Pomerance, Head Archivist of the Jewish Museum Berlin; Klaus Zwilsky, Holocaust survivor; and Dr. Charlotte Schallié, SCVN project director and professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Victoria, as they examine how archives with personal histories can be developed with care.

As a curator, Aubrey Pomerance worked with the Zwilsky family’s documents, photographs and objects relating to their experiences in Berlin, Germany, where they survived the Holocaust at the Jewish Hospital. This webinar will explore Aubrey’s archiving of the Zwilsky Collection in conversation with Dr. Charlotte Schallié. They will be joined by Klaus to reflect upon his collaboration with Aubrey and the complexity of having personal family history become part of the public archives. The discussion will be followed by a question and answer period for attendees.

This webinar is part of the 2026 Archiving with Care series, a collaboration between UBC Public Humanities Hub and the Survivor Centered Visual Narratives Project.

Personal Histories in the Public Archive: Archiving the Klaus Zwilsky Story
Thursday, January 29
10:00 – 11:30 am PST
Webinar Info: https://publichumanities.ubc.ca/events/event/personal-histories-in-the-public-archive-archiving-the-klaus-zwilsky-story/
Registration Link:https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7alvVDG4OgnUwom

Speaker Profiles

Left: Klaus Max Zwilsky, middle: Aubrey Pomerance, and right: Dr. Charlotte Schallié.

Aubrey Pomerance is the Head of Archives at the Jewish Museum Berlin. Born in Calgary, Canada, he studies Jewish Studies and History at the Freie Universität Berlin. There he was a research assistant at the Institut für Judaistik in 1995 and 1996 and thereafter at the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institut for German Jewish history in Duisburg. In April 2001, he took up his position at the Jewish Museum Berlin, being responsible for the establishment of a branch of the Archives of the Leo Baeck Institute and for the museum’s archival collection. He is the community liaison overseeing the Zwilsky Collection working with Klaus Zwilsky and his family, which connected him with the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives (SCVN) Project.

Klaus Max Zwilsky was born in Berlin, Germany, on August 16, 1932. He and his parents survived the Nazi regime in the Berlin Jewish Hospital, where his father was an administrator, while his mother did forced labor at Siemens. Following the end of the war, Klaus became the first boy to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah in Berlin. In 1946, he and his parents emigrated to the United States. After obtaining his Doctor of Science degree from MIT, Klaus pursued a career in Materials Science and Engineering.

In 2000, he began organizing an extensive collection of papers left by his parents, detailing the fate of his extended family who perished during the war. He organized his family’s personal papers from the war period and donated these documents to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Klaus has frequently returned to Berlin to participate in Holocaust workshops for German high school students and other educational programs organized by the Jewish Museum Berlin. He has also spoken extensively to share his personal experiences with high school and middle school students as well as social and professional groups in the United States.

Charlotte Schallié is a Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Victoria. Her teaching and research interests include memory studies, visual culture studies & graphic narratives, teaching and learning about the Holocaust, genocide and human rights education, community-engaged participatory research and arts-based action research. Together with Dr. Andrea Webb (UBC), she is the co-director of the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives Project (www.visualnarratives.org), funded by a 7-year SSHRC Partnership Grant.

Thank you to the UBC’s Public Humanities Hub team for co-hosting
and facilitating this webinar!

‘Al-Faẓia’ part of scientific experiment at Betweter Festival, The Netherlands – Sept 26, 2025

Categoriesevents, student engagementPosted on

On September 26, pages from Tobi Dahmen’s graphic novel Al-Faẓia’ – The Horror: Surviving Syria’s Prisons were included in a one-day scientific experiment in visual journalism. Al-Faẓia’ is about survivor Akram Al Saud’s experiences as a prisoner of the totalitarian Assad regime, and the experiment presented students with panels from his story to review. The experiment, called ‘Voer Voor Je Feed’ (Food For Your Feed), was organized by Winnifred Wijnker and Yael de Haan, researchers at Hogeschool Utrecht, for the 2025 Betweter Festival. Its goal was to understand how young people’s experience of reading the news changed when the stories were presented in the form of comics. Over one hundred people participated in the experiment.

Pages from Al-Faẓia’ used in the experiment. Photo credit: Tobi Dahmen.

The Betweter Festival is a one-day event that celebrates science and art through a mix of presentations, interviews, film screenings, musical performances, interactive scientific experiments, and more. The festival has been held annually at TivoliVredenburg since 2016.

More information about this year’s festival can be found at the Betweter Festival website.

Photos of students from the event reviewing the graphic narratives and pages from Al-Faẓia’. Photo credit: Winnifred Wijnker.

‘Zeitzeichnen. Comic & Erinnerung’ exhibit opens at Turm zur Katz – Nov 7, 2025 – Mar 15, 2026

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After a successful four-month run at the Kunsthaus Wiesbaden under the title ‘I will not be silent! Drawn Memories in Comics’, curator Jakob Hoffmann’s exhibit is now featured at the Turm zur Katz in Konstanz as ‘Zeitzeichnen. Comic & Erinnerung’ (Drawing Time. Comic & Memory).

For this exhibit, Jakob Hoffmann has brought together internationally acclaimed, award-winning artists Tobi Dahmen, Nora Krug, Birgit Weyhe, and Hannah Brinkmann, all of whom ‘shed light on history through graphic storytelling’. The exhibit features original drawings, sketches, interviews, and research materials from the development of their graphic narratives.

Three of the four artists—Tobi, Nora, and Birgit—are collaborating on upcoming graphic novels with our Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives project. While Nora and Birgit are not presenting work associated with the SCVN project, Tobi’s collaboration with the Iraq/Syria Research Cluster is featured, showcasing panels from Al-Faẓia’ – The Horror: Surviving Syria’s Prisons. It tells the story of Akram Al Saud’s experiences as a prisoner of the totalitarian Assad regime. Al-Faẓia’ will be published by Carlsen Verlag in June, 2026 and University of Toronto Press in fall 2026.

Left: Panels from all artists, title translation: ‘Violence and its representation: What can one endure?’ Right: Panels from Al-Faẓia’. Photo credit: Torben Nuding.

The exhibit opened on November 6 with a panel discussion between Jakob Hoffmann, Birgit Weyhe, and renowned literary and cultural scholar Prof. Dr. Aleida Assmann. Then, on November 16, Birgit Weyhe sat down with Holocaust survivor Ernst Grube to discuss her book Time Heals No Wounds: The Life of Ernst Grube.

Photos from opening night, which included a panel discussion followed by a book signing and viewing of the exhibit. Photo credit: Torben Nuding.

‘Zeitzeichnen. Comic & Erinnerung’ will be open until March 15, 2026. Turm zur Katz offers free public tours on the first Sunday of every month. For more details about the exhibit, visit their website here.

To read about the exhibit’s run at the Kunsthaus Wiesbaden, follow the link to our blog post.

‘Community Engagement and Intercultural Sensitivity: Ethics, Design and Practice’ – Panel and workshop with Rwanda Research Cluster

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On October 13, the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities hosted a panel and workshop featuring members of SCVN’s Rwanda Research Cluster titled ‘Community Engagement and Intercultural Sensitivity: Ethics, Design and Practice’. It was led by Dr. Fransiska Louwagie and featured three speakers with backgrounds in ethnographic research: Drs. Anna Ball, Erin Jessee, and María Soledad Montañez. The full day event included an online panel in the morning and an in-person workshop in the afternoon, hosted at the Sir Duncan Rice Library at the University of Aberdeen.

The panel focused on how community engagement is an increasingly important academic practice, offering insightful pathways to both the impactful dissemination and collaborative creation of new knowledge.

Anna Ball introducing the morning panel session. Photo credit: Fransiska Louwagie.

It explored the questions: how can we ensure that engagement practices are sensitive to the cultural identities, practices and beliefs of those within the communities with which we work? And how can we design community engagement practices that enhance understanding, dialogue and agency across perceived differences, in ethical ways?

Following the panel, the workshop invited the speakers to share their experiences with safeguarding, consent, positionality, trauma-informed practice and participant agency. They examined what interculturally sensitive community engagement looks like in terms of research design, ethics and practice. They also focused on the use of listening as a methodology for community engagement of various styles, with lessons from academic experts in intercultural fieldwork with varied communities, including survivors of the Rwandan genocide and people navigating the asylum system.

Thank you to the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities and University of Aberdeen for hosting the panel and workshop.

From left to right: Rwanda Research Cluster Co-Leads Fransiska Louwagie and Erin Jessee, with Advanced Research Fellow, Anna Ball. Photo credit: Fransiska Louwagie.

For more information about the event: https://tockify.com/sgsah/detail/355/1760349600000