معرفی
Karin Kvist Geverts is an Associate Professor in History at Uppsala University and Director of The Institute for Holocaust Research in Sweden (IHRS). She currently works part-time on the Swedish Research Council-funded project Witnessing for the future. Holocaust, Sweden and Forgotten Early Testimonies (2024-2026), led by Professor Andrej Kotljarchuk with Associate Professor Simo Muir.
Education:
- PhD in History (2008), Uppsala University: A Foreign Element within the Nation. Swedish Refugee Policy and the Jewish Refugees 1938-1944
Research Focus: Her work centers on Holocaust Studies and Antisemitism Studies within Swedish and Nordic contexts. She examines Holocaust memory culture, testimony studies, and refugee policies during WWII, notably arguing that antisemitism in 1930s-40s Sweden operated as "background noise"—unrecognized because it wasn't programmatic or violent, enabling discriminatory practices against Jewish refugees to be perceived as normal bureaucratic procedures.
Publication Trends: Her 14 most recent works (2007-2017) consistently analyze Scandinavian Holocaust narratives, emphasizing Sweden's ambivalent role as both rescuer and discriminator. Key themes include early Holocaust testimonies, Nordic press representations, refugee reception policies, and the institutionalization of antisemitism within welfare states, often employing comparative transnational frameworks.
Grants & Leadership:
- Current: Swedish Research Council project Witnessing for the future (2024-2026) as part-time researcher
- Expert Secretary: Swedish Government Inquiry on Holocaust Museum establishment (SOU 2020:21)
- Director: Institute for Holocaust Research in Sweden (IHRS), coordinating national research initiatives
Collaboration: Works with Nordic scholars including Professor Andrej Kotljarchuk (project lead) and Associate Professor Simo Muir on early Holocaust testimonies, while contributing to international networks through edited volumes like The Histories and Memories of the Holocaust in Scandinavia (Routledge, 2011).
