Frank Davis Memorial Lecture

Digital Art History as Social Art History: Working through Architecture and the Built Environment of Krakow During Nazi Occupation

Speaker: Paul Jaskot, Professor of Art History and German Studies, Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University

The Nazi occupation of Krakow during World War II had a surprising impact on architecture and the built environment. This presentation looks at the intersection of perpetrator interests and victim experiences in building, from high-profile architectural projects like the Wawel to the urban interventions of ghettoization. Building in general and the construction industry in particular have been vastly overlooked as subjects that allows us to get at this intersecting history of the Holocaust. This presentation argues that digital methods that extend the premises and arguments of social art history offer a way forward for a more complex and critical analysis of the political history of architecture in this period.

Paul Jaskot is Professor of Art History and German Studies in the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University. His work focuses on Nazi cultural policy and its post-war impact as well as broad topics in the social history of art. He is also the Co-Director of the Digital Art History & Visual Culture Research Lab. 

Organised by Dr Stephen Whiteman (The Courtauld) and Dr Austin Nevin (The Courtauld) as part of their Frank Davis Memorial Lecture series titled ‘Art History Futures: At the Junction of the Digital and Material Turns’. 

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8 Mar 2022

Tuesday 8th March 2022, 6.00pm - 8.00pm

Free, booking essential

Online 

Registration closes 30 minutes before the event start time. If you do not receive log in details on the day of the event, please contact researchforum@courtauld.ac.uk  

Tags: 

Research
Image showing a route through the plans of a city
Ritter, Plan for the Rebuilding of Krakow (c. 1941). Animation Still, Davide Contiero, Duke University dahvc.org, 2018.

Citations