Keene State, SSU Partner to Host Holocaust Archaeology Pioneer

Sep 19, 2024
Caroline Sturdy Colls

SALEM, MASS. – Salem State University has partnered with Keene State College in New Hampshire to bring an internationally recognized Holocaust archaeologist to campus next week.

The two institutions have partnered to bring to the United States professor Caroline Sturdy Colls, a professor from United Kingdom’s University of Huddersfield and pioneer of a newly developed sub-discipline of archaeology focusing on Holocaust sites.

Sturdy Colls will first visit Keene State on Tuesday, September 24 to present a lecture titled “From Treblinka and Trawniki: Forensic Archaeological Investigations at Sites of Nazi Persecution.” She will then come to Salem State on Thursday, September 26 for a lecture titled “Holocaust Archaeologies: Approaches and New Future Directions.”

Salem State’s event is co-sponsored by its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, as well as its geography and sustainability, geographical sciences and history departments, and the JCC of the North Shore as a community partner. Keene State’s event is part of a 2024-25 series on “Forensics and Genocide” through the school’s Cohen Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

“We’re bringing Professor Sturdy Colls from England in partnership with Keene State College’s Cohen Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies,” said Christopher Mauriello, director for Salem State’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. “In addition to the partnership we have with the community of Holocaust Education Centers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, there’s a lot of power in two state universities bringing their resources together to bring an international scholar to campus. Neither of us could do it without this partnership.”

Sturdy Coll’s research focuses on the application of interdisciplinary approaches to the investigation of Holocaust landscapes. She conducted the first forensic archaeological investigations at Treblinka Extermination and Labor Camps, the results of which will be presented in her forthcoming book Finding Treblinka. She’s also the author of several other books, including Holocaust Archaeologies: Approaches and Future Directions (2015) and Adolf Island: The Nazi Occupation of Alderney (2022).

"More than 900,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered at the Treblinka Death Camp during the Holocaust. Because the camp was largely destroyed in 1944, it was long thought that little evidence of the horrors committed there remained,” said Regina Kazyulina, visiting assistant professor and program research associate at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. “Professor Sturdy Colls and her team were the first to adopt new technologies, such as ground penetrating radar, satellite imaging, as well as other techniques common to forensic archeology, to study Treblinka. Their work not only provided new insights into the camp and the location of mass graves, but also showed the immense potential of such techniques for analyzing sites of mass violence in an ethical, noninvasive way that does not disturb the soil and the remains of victims."

The partnership to bring Sturdy Colls to the United States comes as Keene State celebrates a transformative gift from supporters Jan and Rick Cohen to elevate the previously titled Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies to become the Cohen Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The move expands the Institute's ability to partner with institutions on offerings similar to the Sturdy Colls event.

“Students, faculty and community members are eagerly anticipating Professor Sturdy Colls’s visit to Keene,” said Kate Gibeault, director of the Cohen Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State. “Her innovative research techniques showcase how interdisciplinary thinking can advance our understanding of the past in powerful ways. The physical evidence that she and her team have unearthed has radically altered our knowledge about Treblinka and what unfolded there during the Holocaust.”

Both events are hybrid, meaning they will also be live streamed on Zoom in addition to conducted in person. To attend either:

Related Categories

Faculty and Staff, Campus Community, Centers, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
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