Janine Holc

Professor Janine Holc is a leading scholar in gender and sexuality studies, focusing on Central Europe with particular expertise in Polish history and memory politics. Her work intersects Holocaust studies, reproductive rights, and social activism, producing groundbreaking research on marginalized communities.

• Education: Ph.D. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, B.A. from Illinois State University.

Her research reconstructs traumatic histories through survivor testimonies, as seen in her 2023 monograph The Weavers of Trautenau examining Jewish female forced labor during WWII. She explores the dynamics of cultural change in post-Soviet Poland (2021) and analyzes neoliberal masculinity in Polish cinema (2020). Her publications also address anti-Semitism (2019), museum curation (2018), and transnational memory activism (2017).

Recent articles reveal trends in Holocaust memory, borderland identity, and disability representation through graphic novels (2016). She investigates how trauma shapes national narratives and civil society in post-communist contexts, often critiquing institutional memory frameworks like POLIN Museum.

Professor Holc’s career demonstrates sustained engagement with Polish-Jewish relations, reproductive rights advocacy, and interdisciplinary analysis of historical memory’s role in contemporary politics.