Catholic Studies Faculty Member Has Been Awarded Prestigious Fellowship in Advanced Shoah Studies  

Dr. Monika Rice, adjunct professor in Catholic Studies, has been awarded the Saul Kagan Fellowship in Advanced Shoah Studies for the academic year 2017/2018. The Kagan Fellowship is awarded to outstanding postdoctoral candidates around the world conducting Holocaust research who demonstrate excellence in academic achievement, and possess the potential to provide outstanding professional leadership that will shape the future of Holocaust scholarship. Dr. Rice's new research project concerns the postwar identities of medical doctors of Jewish origin in communist Poland. By examining personal narratives (especially, memoirs, diaries and letters), it will elucidate how and why Polish-Jewish physicians created and expressed religious, social, cultural, ethnic, and political identities for themselves after experiencing the Shoah. The goal of the research is to disclose the varied layers of the expression of these self-identities, in order to contribute to the cultural history of physicians as a subset of the Polish-Jewish intelligentsia. 
 
This research project will become a basis for a second book Dr. Rice is currently working on. Dr. Rice's first book, titled: "What! Still Alive?!' Jewish Survivors in Poland and Israel Remember Homecoming," is being released by Syracuse University Press in October 2017.

About Catholic Studies:
The Catholic Studies program at Seton Hall offers an innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum for students of any creed who are interested in deepening their knowledge of Catholicism's rich intellectual tradition and living heritage. Combining the study of history, philosophy, theology, literature, art, sociology, and other disciplines, Catholic Studies focuses on the church's dialogue with culture and encounter with the world. Students interested in Catholic Studies have the option to pursue a major, minor, or certificate that complements and enhances the university's other degree programs and fields of study.

For more information, please contact Dr. Ines Murzaku at [email protected] or (973)-275-2808, and Gloria Aroneo at [email protected] or (973)-275-2808.