Please join us for an afternoon talk by Dr. Solomon Brager, "Comic Resistance: Archival Research and Jewish History," which will focus on the use of graphic narrative to examine family history, the Holocaust in the context of empire, and the politics of memory.
Date and Time: Wednesday, May 14, 12:30-2pm
Location: Humanities Instructional Building 135
Zoom option: Link
Meeting ID: 948 8364 7272
Passcode: 063464
Historian and cartoonist Solomon Brager will present their book Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory (William Morrow 2024). They will talk through the process of researching and writing a non-fiction comic using archival research, and discuss the ethical implications of Holocaust memory and the inheritance of historical violence in the present. Heavyweight works to use the specificity of one's own lived experience to make sense of a larger story– thinking about internal state violence in relation to colonial projects, and the structures of power that produce Holocaust memory in the present.
Solomon J. Brager is a cartoonist and writer living in Brooklyn, New York, and the author of Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory (William Morrow 2024). They are on the editorial collective of Pinko magazine, the editor of the Doykeit zine series, and a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artists Fellow. Their comics and research have appeared in The Nib, JewishCurrents, ArtForum, World War III Illustrated, Refract Journal, and The New Inquiry, among other publications. They hold a PhD from Rutgers University, New Brunswick and teach as adjunct faculty in history, media, and gender studies.
This talk is co-hosted by the Teller Family Chair in Jewish History and the UCI Graphic Narratives Research Cluster, and is co-sponsored by the History Department.