Wounded Scholar, Healing Witness

Idit Gil is the academic director of the MA program of Interdisciplinary Democracy Studies at the Open University of Israel, Ra'anana, Israel. Specialising in Holocaust studies, her research focuses on the intricacies of history, memory, and societal and political dynamics. Her scholarly works about Jewish forced labour, survivor testimonies, and the complexities of Holocaust memory in Israeli society have been featured in publications such as Lessons and Legacies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Yad Vashem Studies, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Modern Judaism, Israel Studies, and ITS Jahrbuch. She is also the author of the book, The Holocaust: Between the Personal and the History (2017 [Hebrew]).

Stefanie Hofer is Associate Professor of German in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech, USA. She has published on contemporary German literature and cinematic depictions of Germany's struggle to come to terms with Nazi atrocities and leftwing terrorism. Her current research focuses on the role of autobiographical narratives in posttraumatic healing. Drawing from her own experiences after the murder of her husband during the 16 April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, USA, she argues that analysing literary and filmic depictions of loss and trauma across time and cultures can serve as a catharsis for grieving and, ultimately, provide a self-determined space for working through trauma. Her work has appeared in scholarly venues such as American Imago, German Life and Letters, Film Criticism, Film International, Seminar, and Women in German Yearbook.