student engagement Archives - Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives

Reflecting on the Role of Research Assistants with Jessica Botts

student engagement7 March 20257 April 2025

From transcribing interviews to navigating the archives, Research Assistant Jessica Botts had an instrumental role in the process of developing ‘Two Roses’, the graphic novel created by Miriam Libicki in collaboration with Holocaust survivor Rose Lipszyc.

Jessica is a U.S. Navy Veteran who has lived in and been deployed to several countries. Currently, she is a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Environmental History at the University of Nebraska Omaha, with a minor focus in Native American Studies. She joined the SCVN project in September 2023, and worked closely with Holocaust Research Cluster Co-Lead and historian, Dr. Mark Celinscak, and graphic artist Miriam Libicki.

As a Research Assistant, Jessica transcribed interviews between Miriam and Rose and researched throughout historical archives for specific information and materials for Miriam to consult. To prepare her research findings for Miriam, she created PowerPoint presentations with a selection of historical images and notes describing historical sources and translations. The collection of images provided a visual reference for Miriam to develop her graphic narrative.

The following images are a selection of highlights from Jessica’s research:

We also followed up with Miriam, who shared her experience of collaborating with Jessica, and highlighted her detailed approach and diligence:

“Jessica had to transcribe, type and organize four days of conversations, with a quick turnaround so that I could start on my script. She also helped enormously when I was first establishing the look of the story’s settings. She found photos both recent and archival, of Rose’s birthplace neighbourhood in Lublin, as well as the clothes and patches Polish slave labourers were given to wear.

Without my asking, she found photos of the very specific stiff wooden shoes labourers all wore, and when I showed this photo to Rose, it brought back strong memories and great sensory descriptions of slipping on snow.

I really appreciated how organized Jessica was, and how she diligently kept me updated on her progress and her research plans.”

Jessica’s role as Research Assistant on SCVN was unique due to her close and direct support to one of the graphic artists. In January 2025, she shared the following reflections on this experience with us:

“It has been a privilege and honor to work as a Research Assistant with historian Dr. Mark Celinscak and graphic artist Miriam Libicki on the Survivor-Centered Visual Narratives project to create a graphic novel about Rose Lipszyc’s story of surviving the Holocaust with her aunt. I have learned a lot about the Second World War and the Holocaust that I never knew before. Though I never met Rose in person, I feel like I know her because of the friendship and openness that she shared with Miriam, Dr. Celinscak, and others in the recordings of their time together. As a Research Assistant on the team, it was my job to transcribe their many interviews together. In the interviews with Rose, I listened to her story and became quite familiar with it as she revealed the details from her memories of her time in hiding in plain sight, as they unfolded bit by bit. Rose told of how a Jewish girl from Poland escaped the rounding up of the Lublin Jewish population and went on to work in Germany at a factory under the noses of her oppressors. She and her aunt made every situation work out as best as possible for them, and with a bit of luck, quick-wittedness, and some unlikely friendships, they were able to make it through the war until Allied troops came and liberated the area.

Documenting Rose’s story into written transcriptions helped Miriam ensure she could capture each detail to be highlighted on the pages of the novel.

In addition, I was often asked to find historical photographs of the places and clothing Rose encountered and wore on her journey. I then put them into power points for references for Miriam to create the visual depiction of Rose’s story for the novel. Sometimes, to give perspective, I would find modern pictures of specific locations to contrast with generalized pictures of a similar place when period photos were unable to be located. I used military archives, different types of maps, Polish national archives, photos from groups where people were sharing their family histories about how they lived and what they went through during WWII as Polish laborers, and sometimes just scouring pages on the internet to find images for Miriam to reference. The photographs shared by descendants from Polish families telling about their family’s stories were especially helpful because Rose and her aunt posed as Polish girls from the countryside, working in German factories to send money home to their families.

Rose is astounding in terms of the number of languages that she speaks. To pull off posing as Polish laborers, Rose had to speak “a perfect Polish,” as she would say, though that was not what was spoken at home growing up but was learned at school; she also learned German while in Germany, and spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and later learned English as well when she immigrated to Canada.

Because Rose speaks so many languages, she would sometimes recall songs, sayings, and conversations she had had in another language, and I would have to figure out the translation for it.

I am very fortunate to have lived in Europe for several years and have friends who speak German fluently and have a grasp of other neighboring countries’ languages, so they were able to help me with translations at times when trying to search the internet for them was unfruitful. Dr. Celinscak also had academic colleagues overseas who assisted me by looking through some local archives to help find photographs and information I could not access.

I have found it fascinating and encouraging to see how different relationships and friendships helped bring Rose’s story to life in the graphic novel Miriam authored and illustrated. Through researching, writing the transcriptions, finding proper translations, and historical images, I became engrossed in the stories, videos, and images of Holocaust survivors.

It truly is heart-wrenching to know the atrocities that people had to endure and inspiring to see how they have overcome that trauma to move on with their lives afterward.

Rose would tell how her mom would say that she did not think the whole world had gone crazy and that someone would help her. Hearing her tell about some of the small acts of kindness she and her aunt were given demonstrated the hope in the human spirit her mother held during such a terrible time lived out in the day-to-day exchanges in people’s lives. It could become frustrating when pictures, documentation, or paperwork seemingly disappeared from the historical record when I could not find what I was looking for to help Miriam. It was like somehow the evil of that time had won that battle of the documentation that was such a big part of people’s lives from that time period, but then seeing how people around the world worked together to help put all the pieces together to complete bringing Rose’s story to the graphic novel page, it felt like a victory again too. I genuinely appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this project and to have had the privilege to get to know Rose and her story, as well as Miriam and many other people who are a part of the Survivor-Centered Visual Narratives project.”

On behalf of the SCVN team, we sincerely thank Jessica for her hard work and dedication. Her contribution was essential to supporting Miriam’s work and telling Rose Lipszyc’s story as closely as possible to her testimonial.

First-year Practicum Experience with SCVN – Fall 2024

student engagement23 October 202430 January 2025

In the fall 2024, we had the pleasure of inviting three first-year students from the University of Victoria’s HUMA 180 class to participate in a practicum with the project. The class is a Dean’s Seminar course that introduces Humanities students to current research and researchers through three-week long practicums experience.

Our practicum students were Claire Fenton, Henri Jefferis, and Kate Kristianson, and from October 23 to November 6 they each completed twelve hours of training and research practice with SCVN. During their initial meeting with Project Director Dr. Charlotte Schallié, Project Manager Jennifer Sauter, and Research Assistant Lucie Kotesovska they were introduced to the context and protocol of webinar transcription. As the main task of their practicum, Claire, Henri, and Kate selected a webinar from the SCVN’s ‘Art and Testimony Webinar Series’ and provided a transcription of the session under the joint supervision of Jennifer and Lucie. In the second week of the practicum, the students had a chance to discuss their experience and any potential challenges at a check-in meeting. It turned out to be a welcome opportunity to connect during the emotionally challenging task, share tips on the technological aspects of their work, and even to engage in research together when dealing with less clear points in their respective webinars. The final meeting provided space for the students to reflect upon their research experience and share their main takeaways with other team members. Along with their finished transcripts, the students were asked to submit a one-page reflection piece inspired by the webinar they watched and transcribed. Here, they had the opportunity to focus on something they learned, were inspired by, or even disagreed with during that process.

Claire, Henri and Kate presenting their HUMA 180 practicum experience with SCVN to their class. Image credit: Ziming Dong.

Claire shared her new-found appreciation for the comic, stating, “I have learned more than I ever thought I would about how comics can be used to tell the stories of people who have been through devastating things.” She also commented on the unique accessibility of the medium:

“Everyone can learn something from comics, a book being based in images does not make it lose its academic value to society. In some cases, it can even increase its value because it opens up its knowledge for a wider audience.”

Kate also reflected on her re-evaluation of the graphic narrative, saying that before her participation in the project, she thought that “traditional presentation methods should exclusively be used for heavy, serious subjects such as genocide because any other, more creative method could not be serious enough or do justice for the survivors’ experiences.” Having engaged with one the webinar, she is now convinced that “graphic novels are as, if not more, effective demonstration of survivor stories than [for instance] traditional video interviews.” Explaining her updated stance, she said:

“Unlike a traditional video interview where the main benefit is to see the survivor react to telling their story, in a graphic novel, the reader can see what the survivor experienced through their eyes, how the survivor perceived what happened, the survivor’s flashes of memory, and how that has affected their later life.”

Reflecting on the story of the Holocaust child survivor from the webinar he transcribed, Henri commented that even though “it tells a very sad and dark story,” it is still a story that “must be told”. He added that he felt “mortified by the fact that atrocities such as this actually happened.” He realized that it was impossible for him “to go back and prevent these horrific acts from transpiring” but that he “can do work to ensure that such acts are never forgotten.” About his personal contribution to the act of collective remembering, he wrote:

“I have always admired those who do work to preserve and share the memories and testimonies of those who had to live through such dark times. I felt so proud and honored to be a part of it for once, knowing that I am contributing to this process.”

After the practicum, Claire, Henri, and Kate, had a chance to share what they learned with wider community. On November 26, they each gave a poster presentation in class during which they explained their research task and reflected upon its humanistic context and value.

The students’ participation in the ‘Art and Testimony Webinar Series’ transcription project was a valuable and enriching experience for all involved. Their contributions provided essential support to the project while also helping them develop critical research and transcription skills.

Thank you very much for your effort and enthusiasm Claire, Henri, and Kate! It has been an honour to have you as our HUMA 180 practicum student research assistants on the project this term and we wish you all best as you embark on your future academic projects.