Professor and Doctoral researcher take up prestigious US fellowships

The Centre of Archaeology’s Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls and doctoral student Jade Peckham have both recently temporarily relocated to the US to begin prestigious fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Based at the Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, both scholars will conduct cutting-edge research about the material traces of the Holocaust.

Prof Sturdy Colls was invited to take up the Ina Levine Invitational Fellowship, which is granted annually in recognition of excellence in the pursuit of innovative research or teaching.

She will conduct research for her forthcoming jointly authored book, "Trawniki: Nexus of the Final Solution," as well as about the material culture of the Operation Reinhard killing centres.

Museum's extensive archives will aid research

Her fellowship, which will last nine months, offers an unparalleled opportunity to access the wealth of materials that the Museum  holds, including artifacts, documents, films, photographs, recorded sound, microfilms, digital resources, and published materials preserved in the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections, Conservation and Research Center.

"I am honoured and excited to have this incredible opportunity to spend so much time at such an important institution. Having undertaken a fellowship at the Museum in 2016 and participated in several of their programs, I know that my current fellowship will allow me to access a unique archive of Holocaust sources and to have the support of the Museum's wonderful staff,” Prof Sturdy Colls said. 

She added, "I have only been at the Museum for a few weeks, and already I have examined new primary documents that reveal new information about the camps in Trawniki, and I have found out important details about the lives of both the victims and perpetrators who encountered these camps. This will all play a vital role in the book that I am working on with my colleagues that seeks to provide a new spatial, archaeological and historical account of the crimes that took place there."     

Meanwhile, Jade  - who was awarded a Sosland Foundation Fellowship after applying to an open call for applications - will continue with her doctoral research, which focuses on the presentation and acquisition of perpetrator objects by Holocaust museums. She will spend four months at the Museum.

Speaking about her fellowship, Jade said: "I feel incredibly grateful and honoured to have been selected as a Sosland Foundation Fellow at the Museum. The dedicated time and access to the Museum's vast archival collections and material culture resources will be invaluable, and I am excited to apply these insights to my doctoral work.

"The fellowship allows me to fully immerse myself in my research on the ethics of exhibiting perpetrator material culture with the knowledge and expertise of the Museum's staff, which has already advanced my understanding of this challenging subject."

Prof Sturdy Colls and Jade join a cohort of 26 fellows from the U.S., Europe and Israel working on a range of topics connected to the Holocaust and its aftermath.

The Centre of Archaeology's team explore how conflict, genocide, human evolution, identity and climate change have shaped the world in which we live. They utilize archaeological and historical skills to find, document and preserve the evidence and heritage connected to these events.