The latest installment of the Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders speaker series brought Dr. Michael Bernard-Donals, professor of English and Jewish Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, to DePaul on April 29, 2013.
He spoke to WRD faculty and students on how to carve out a space for Jewish rhetoric by emphasizing the deterritorialized Jewish stance. He explained how this perspective does not seek to speak “for” or “about” others, but instead attempts to create the prospect of dialogue and understanding by speaking from the position of the exile.
Throughout his talk, he encouraged the audience to reflect on how the study of Jewish rhetoric–an ethnic minority rhetoric–holds a great deal of potential for increasing cross-cultural identification and exchange.
Bernard-Donals’ has performed extensive research in rhetorical and critical theory, public memory, and post-Holocaust representation. He is the author of numerous published titles, including his most recent book, “Forgetful Memory: Representation and Remembrance in the Wake of the Holocaust,” which explores the relationship between memory and forgetfulness and argues that the two “cannot be separated but must be examined as they complicate our understanding of the Shoah.”
Bernard-Donals is the Nancy Hoefs Professor of English and the Director of the George Mosse/Laurence Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.