Storytelling in/as Resistance
Queensborough Community College was one of six community colleges nationwide chosen in 2011 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to receive a Challenge Grant for Two-Year Colleges to strengthen their humanities programs and resources. The College’s Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center (KHC) was at the heart of this grant and of our efforts to serve as a model of excellence in enriching students’ experiences and deepening their understanding of differences among cultures, as well as using remembrance and memory as a foundation. For more information, click here.
2026-27 Colloquium
Drawing on the Kupferberg Holocaust Center as a place for sharing stories of survival in the face of the Holocaust through exhibitions and programming, the 2026-27 colloquium addresses storytelling as a form of resistance against the legacy of Nazi persecution. Taken as a whole, the work of the speakers in this series exemplify how storytelling in the form of comic books and graphic novels, fine art, photojournalism, biography and exhibition-making offers opportunities to consider how lessons of the Holocaust remain relevant today, fostering critical awareness of the catastrophic trajectory from bias to dehumanization. Speakers, including Holocaust scholars, authors, artists, and museum professionals, also address how compelling narratives of resistance can create transformative experiences for audiences.
*Photo credit: Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Noncia, 2022, video, sound, 6 min., 52 sec. Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich
Fall 2026 Programs
In person programs take place at the KHC unless noted otherwise. Events are free and open to all, but registration ahead of time is required and visitors must show ID upon entering the campus at Queensborough Community College (QCC). On site parking is available and for directions to QCC’s campus, please visit https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/about/index.html#gettingHere. For elevator access, enter the QCC Administration building and follow signs for the KHC.
KHC-NEH Lecture
Eve Adams: Daring Life, Dangerous Times
Recorded on September 23, 2026
Click here to watch the recording
In 1912, Chawa Złoczower, a Jewish Polish immigrant made her way to the US and soon helped publicize the anarchist speeches of Emma Goldman. Later, Złoczower took the name Eve Adams, and toured America, getting paid to sell radical leftist magazines. In 1925 she published a unique, pioneering book, Lesbian Love, containing stories of women she had met. Her activism drew the ire of US FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, ultimately leading to Adams’ deportation back to Poland and tragic murder in Auschwitz. Join Jonathan Ned Katz, historian and author of the 2021 biography, The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams, for a conversation about Adams’ adventurous life, his work to uncover her story as a vibrant resistor, and what it means in today’s troubled social world.
KHC-NEH Lecture (In Person & Online)
Anti-Jewish Folklore and the Rise of Antisemitism Before, During and After the Holocaust
October 5, 2026, 2:15pm to 4:00pm EDT
To attend in person: https://khc-10-5-2026.eventbrite.com
To attend online: https://tinyurl.com/yc82fp7b
The first written account of an anti-Jewish folktale is a tale of English or German origin, published in 1228. From the Middle Ages to the Modern Era, these folktales helped fuel the anti-Jewish prejudice prevalent within and beyond Western society. By the nineteenth century, the tales assisted in paving the way for anti-Judaism to transition into antisemitism; subsequently, the Nazis were then able to capitalize on these stories as objects of antisemitic propaganda. Join Dr. Sofia Lago, Lecturer of English for Academic Purposes at Suzhou University, for a discussion about how these counternarratives served to inflame rampant antisemitism perpetuated by Hitler’s Nazi party.
KHC-NEH Lecture & Human Rights & the Museum Series (Online only)
Women’s Stories: Holocaust Histories in the Museum
October 21, 2026, 2:30pm to 4:00pm EDT
To attend online: https://tinyurl.com/263t33rb
Museums act as conduits of historical information to the public. As such, these institutions are responsible for considering their role in creating and perpetuating historical narratives. Using gender as a category of historical analysis reveals how women are underrepresented within memorial spaces dedicated to the Holocaust. While individual women may be visibly depicted in photos and conveyed through survivor testimonies, exhibits at many large museums often miss the overarching narrative of women’s collective experiences. Join Dr. Katie Chaka-Parks, Director of Education at the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan, for discussion about how these representations and omissions inform our understanding of the memory and history of the Holocaust.
KHC-NEH Lecture (In Person & Online)
Yizkor Books: Narratives of Memory and Resilience of a Lost Jewish World
November 18, 2026, 2:15pm to 4:00pm EST
To attend in person: https://khc-11-18-2026.eventbrite.com
To attend online: https://tinyurl.com/yp68rern
Written primarily by Holocaust survivors, yizkor books were created to memorialize the Jewish towns—known as shtetls, in Yiddish—once scattered across Eastern Europe. Yizkor books documented both the day-to-day culture that was characteristic of these communities, and their destruction during World War II. Join Jane Ziegelman, author of Once There Was a Town: The Memory Books of a Lost Jewish World, for a discussion about the history and substance of these remarkable books, as both testaments to the power of remembering and to the resilience of a people who refused to be forgotten.
2026-27 Faculty Fellows
This year’s colloquium is organized by KHC-NEH Faculty Fellows and QCC Professors, Kat Griefen, Program Coordinator and Faculty Member, Gallery and Museum Studies, Art and Design Department, and Susan Lago, Lecturer of English
