Author and art historian Paul B. Jaskot, Ph.D., will speak at Fairfield University about his illuminating study of the design of the Auschwitz concentration camp, on Monday, March 17 at 7:30 p.m. In his research, Dr. Jaskot employed Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a fascinating technology to digitally recreate Auschwitz.

The event, free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by Fairfield University's  Judaic Studies Program and the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies.

The lecture - "The Built Environment at Auschwitz: Between Imperial Ambition and Genocide" - will be held in the Dolan School of Business Dining Room.

Dr. Jaskot, professor of the history of art and architecture at DePaul University in Chicago, focuses his work on the central art historical question of how art and politics intersect in the modern world. "Professor Paul Jaskot utilizes the archival record and, with his co-author Anne Kelly Knowles, employs GIS technology to digitally reconstruct the design of Auschwitz - both the town and extermination camp, in the effort to discover what its varied urban spaces and structures reveal about the goals of the Nazi perpetrators and the experiences of their victims," said Professor Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, Ph.D., director of the Judaic Studies Program. He co-edited a book with Dr. Jaskot: "Beyond Berlin: Twelve German Cities Confront the Nazi Past" (University of Michigan Press, 2008).

At DePaul, Professor Jaskot teaches about the history of architecture and modern European art. More recently, he has begun to develop classes on the burgeoning field of digital art history. His specific area of research has mostly focused on the cultural history of National Socialist Germany and its postwar impact on art and architecture. His most recent book is, "The Nazi Perpetrator: Postwar German Art and the Politics of the Right" (Minnesota, 2012). Dr. Jaskot served as president of the College Art Association, the professional group for artists and art historians.

For more information about Fairfield University's Judaic Studies Program and the Bennett Center, visit www.fairfield.edu.

Posted On: 03-07-2014 03:03 PM

Volume: 46 Number: 201