Panelists to Discuss Aktion T4 and Contesting the Erasure of Disability History During Virtual Event Oct. 18

Kenny Fries, Perel and Quintan Ana Wikswo

Three queer Jewish disabled writers and artists each discuss their work on Aktion T4, a prime crucible of disability history, during a Zoom virtual event on Monday, Oct. 18, from 3-4:15 p.m. ET. Aktion T4 was a eugenics project in Nazi Germany that targeted people with mental and physical disabilities.

The speakers are Kenny Fries, Perel and Quintan Ana Wikswo. The event will be moderated by Julia Watts Belser.

The panelists will explore the following themes and question:

• How to avoid a sentimental or aesthetic depiction
• How to avoid reinscribing trauma
• Because Aktion T4 has no survivors, how do writers and artists become “vicarious witnesses,” which memory studies scholar Susanne C. Knittel describes as not “an act of speaking for and thus appropriating the memory and story of someone else but rather an attempt to bridge the silence through narrative means”?

Registration is required.

Julia Watts Belser

This event is free and open to the public. American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, live captioning and image descriptions will be provided.

Requests for other accommodations can be made by Monday, Oct. 11, by completing the accommodations request field in the Zoom registration form.

Questions about this event can be directed to oipo@syr.edu.

This event is sponsored by the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach (OIPO) at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University through the Collaboration for Unprecedented Success and Excellence (CUSE) Grant Program, with additional support from Atrocity Studies and the Practices of Social Justice; College of Visual and Performing Arts; Department of History; Department of Religion; Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition; Disability Studies; Hendricks Chapel; Jewish Studies; LGBTQ Studies; LGBTQ Resource Center; and Syracuse Hillel.