In the midst of uncertainty and shadows, our series on resistance stands as a beacon of hope. Over the course of our 8-part series, we aim to shed light on the stories of individuals and communities courageously facing prevailing challenges. Our mission is to create a space where narratives of resilience take centre stage, unveiling the indomitable strength of the human spirit in adversity.
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Inaugural Event! Featuring Nicole Fox:
The Resilience of Female Survivors in the Aftermath of Genocide:
Memorialization and Centring Women’s Experiences in Contemporary Rwanda
Nicole Fox, PhD
Nicole Fox, PhD is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University Sacramento. Her research centres on how racial and ethnic contention impacts communities, with a focus on how remembrances of adversity shape social change and collective memory. Her current project examines individuals who conducted acts of rescue during episodes of mass violence, theorising how social factors shape high-risk actions. Her 2021 book After Genocide: Memory and Reconciliation in Rwanda (University of Wisconsin Press) focuses on how memorials to past atrocity impacts community development and reconciliation for survivors of genocide and genocidal rape. Her work has been supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the American Sociological Society’s Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline, among others. She also serves on the United Nations Economic and Social Council and contributes to the UN Commission for the Status of Women held annually at the UN headquarters.
The discussion will be moderated by Tali Nates.
Tali Nates is the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) and Chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation (SAHGF). She is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust and genocide education, memory, reconciliation, and human rights. Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, her father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler. Tali has been involved in the creation and production of dozens of documentary films, published many articles and contributed chapters to different books among them God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (2015), Remembering The Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018), Conceptualizing Mass Violence, Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (2021) and The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism (2023).
In 2021 she was part of the 12-member Expert Group of the Malmö Forum, serving in an advisory capacity to the Secretariat of the Malmö Forum on their programme on Holocaust remembrance, education and actions to combat antisemitism. Tali serves on many Advisory and Academic Boards including that of the Contested Histories Initiative, the Interdisciplinary Academic Journal of Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center and the Academic Advisory Group of the School of Social and Health Sciences, Monash University (IIEMSA), South Africa.
In 2010, Tali was chosen as one of the top 100 newsworthy and noteworthy women in
South Africa by the Mail & Guardian newspaper and won many awards including the Kia Community Service Award (South Africa, 2015), the Gratias Agit Award (2020, Czech Republic), the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (2021), the Goethe Medal (2022, Germany), and the US Secretary of State’s Religious Freedom Award.