It is rare that a single seminar encompasses two topics as diverse as the Holocaust and LGBTQ studies, but this year’s Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar at the U.S. Holocaust Museum presented Trent’s Dr. Karen Blair with the opportunity to explore both research interests in greater depth.

Professor Blair is a member of Trent’s Psychology department and was recently cross-appointed to the new Interdisciplinary Social Research Ph.D. program. She was one of around 20 participants invited to attend the virtual event hosted by the U.S. Holocaust Museum. The Hess seminar, which took place in the first week of January, is one of the museum’s longest running faculty seminars and serves to inspire faculty and advanced graduate students who are teaching or preparing to teach Holocaust-related courses. This year’s theme, LGBTQ+ Histories of the Holocaust, tied in well with Prof. Blair’s own research and teaching interests.

“As a social psychologist, it was really invigorating to see all the points of connection between the work of historians and my own research, and the benefits that can come from truly interdisciplinary approaches to topics like the Holocaust,” says Prof. Blair. “Throughout the week I was conjuring up many different potential research ideas that could explore the intersections between LGBTQ history and the Holocaust in ways that maximize the benefits offered by interdisciplinary research methods and teams.”

One of the seminar’s key outcomes is the development of Holocaust-related course material. In addition to a comprehensive reading list on the theme, participants get access to some of the museum’s artifacts, resources and digital archive for teaching purposes.

“For many years after WW2 the experiences of LGBTQ individuals during the Nazi era were ignored or belittled. Even today, scholars often still have their research findings challenged. Thus, in addition to being able to bring in the work of historians on LGBTQ experiences during the Holocaust, the seminar gave me many topics to talk to my students about with respect to the process of research and the importance of continuously revisiting history to look for the stories of those that previous scholars may have overlooked,” says Prof. Blair.

Prof. Blair will be incorporating elements from the seminar into several of her Psychology program courses at Trent, such Introduction to Social Psychology, History of Psychology, and a new course she is developing: Social Psychology of the Holocaust. The Holocaust and LGBTQ studies will also be a focus of her work with Trent’s new Interdisciplinary Social Research Ph.D. program, which welcomes its first group of students in 2021.

Applications to Trent’s Gender & Social Justice B.A. program and new Interdisciplinary Social Research Ph.D. for fall 2021 are now open. Learn more and apply today.