Erica Lehrer
Director

erica.lehrer@concordia.ca
I am an associate professor in the departments of History and Sociology/Anthropology, and hold the Canada Research Chair in Museum & Heritage Studies.

I established CEREV to create a community of researchers and curators and produce new knowledge around issues of culture and identity in the aftermath of violence.

My interests relate to the meanings of suffering to victims, perpetrators and bystanders, how these meanings are attached to material things and landscapes, how they define and foster group boundaries, identification and affiliation, and how they influence people’s future relations and actions. My work thus far has focused on post-Holocaust Jewish culture; heritage, museums, and tourism; ethnography; intercultural dialogue; and public scholarship.

My recently published book is titled Jewish Poland Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Unquiet Places (Indiana University Press, 2013). It is an ethnography that explores the intersection of Polish and Jewish “memory projects” and the personal quests and encounters that inform them as they meet in the historical Jewish neighborhood of Krakow, Poland.

In summer 2013 I curated the exhibit Souvenir, Talisman, Toy at the Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum in Krakow, and in 2014 published the accompanying book Lucky Jews and the online exhibit www.luckyjews.com.

I am also engaged in a variety of experiments exploring the use of alternative media and venues for disseminating the fruits of academic research.

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