Since the devastation of the Holocaust European Jewry has made an impressive recovery.
Especially after the reunification of Germany and the resulting end of the Cold War, Jews have had a significant impact on shaping Europe's intellectual landscape. Whether as politicians, philosophers or artists, they are contributing to Europe's increasing integration. The Jews' role in Europe has also strengthened their position within World Jewry leading the intellectual historian Diana Pinto to pronounce Europe's Jewry as the ‘third pillar' vis-à-vis Israeli and American Jewry.
Researchers in the Parkes Institute are engaged in analysing these exciting developments with particular reference to Britain, France, Germany and Austria. This work is exemplified in Dr Devorah Baum's interest in the influence of religion on contemporary Jewish literature and philosophy, in Dr James Jordan's research on Jews in British television and in Dr Andrea Reiter's recently completed project on Jewish writers in Austria since the nineteen eighties.
Devorah Baum
My interests include the return of religion, the influence of religion on contemporary literature and philosophy, the relationship between religion and violence and between religion and psychoanalysis, and Jewish literature and philosophy; as well as more generally hermeneutics, critical theory, Jacques Derrida, psychoanalysis, and post-war American literature.
Shirli Gilbert
My research centres broadly on the Holocaust. I have published widely on music in the Nazi ghettos and camps as well as on issues relating to Holocaust memory, and my current research explores the ways in which the Holocaust shaped understandings of and responses to apartheid in South Africa (1948-1994).
James Jordan
My work takes me across a number of different fields that intersect with an interest and research expertise in Holocaust studies and education, Post-war Britain, museums and public history, film and television studies, history, race and racism.
Andrea Reiter
My research interests are diverse, including Holocaust and Exile literature, Post-War Austrian literature and in particular Thomas Bernhard and Ilse Aichinger, anti-modernist movements in Austria, Post-War Jewish literature, Monika Maron, narrative theory and music and literature.
