The Shoah—Can It Be Studied? And If So, How?

Apr 4 2013
When: 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Where: Harman Academy
Event Type: Special Events and Series

Event Details

Is the Shoah a black hole at the center of the human universe, so evil that it cannot be understood?  Or if it is necessary to confront this evil, how can we interpret that which defies comprehension? With Norman Lear Professor of Entertainment, Media, and Society Marty Kaplan acting as moderator, a panel of Holocaust scholars – Stephen D. Smith, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation; Wolf Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies; and Varun Soni, dean of Religious Life at USC – explore the role of Holocaust studies in the modern university.

 

Reception: 4:30 pm

Discussion: 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Speaker Information

Speaker

Martin Kaplan is the Norman Lear Professor of Entertainment, Media and Society at USC Annenberg. His uncommonly broad and polymathic career has also spanned government and politics, the entertainment industry and journalism. Dr. Kaplan was associate dean of the USC Annenberg School for 10 years and is the founding director of the School’s Norman Lear Center, whose mission is to study and shape the impact of media and entertainment on society. His Lear Center research includes the political coverage on U.S. local TV news broadcasts; the effects on audiences of public health messages in entertainment storylines; the impact of new technology and intellectual property law on the creative industries; best practices in and barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration; and the depiction of law and justice in popular culture.