Bogdanow Lectures in Holocaust Studies
An annual series of public lectures at the University, established in 2015 by the bequest of Fanni Bogdanow.
2024 Omer Bartov on “The Return of the Repressed: Ukraine's Unresolved Pasts”
2023 Wendy Lower on “Gender and Ukraine. New Approaches and Themes”
2022 Marion Kaplan on “Refugees and gender studies: new perspectives in Holocaust studies”
2020 Dina Porat on "The Holocaust in Political Life: Israel and Europe in Comparison"
2019 Tony Kushner on "Illegality: Jews and Other Humans"
2018 Jan Grabowski on "Bystanders and the Holocaust in Poland"
2017 Vicki Barnett on "The Church and the Holocaust"
2016 Michael Marrus on "Lessons of the Holocaust"
2015 Christopher Browning on "Agency in the Holocaust: Perpetrators, Survivors, Rescuers"
Application for Student Travel Grants
As part of her bequest to the University of Manchester, Prof. Fanny Bogdanow funded an annual lecture on the Holocaust and a number of student travel bursaries for educational visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This year the Centre for Jewish Studies can allocate up to 2 awards of £400 each (based on an estimated cost of £230 for flights and £115 for hotel/tour, plus £55 contribution for food/other expenses). The expectation is that the visit would take place during the Easter or Summer vacations. The student would make all of the arrangements for the trip although not before consulting with the School Office, Sofy Lam. The student can then claim back their expenses after the trip.
Application: Please email daniel.langton@manchester.ac.uk and justify in a couple of sentences your interest in the subject, and whether you are currently registered for a relevant course unit (depending upon demand, priority will be given to students with relevant dissertation topics or enrolled on relevant course units, such as The 'Holocaust: History, Historiography, Memory' or 'Holocaust Theology'). Please also confirm that you understand that you must provide receipts for all costs/expenses that will be reclaimed, and that you are prepared to write a 500 word report for publication. Deadline for application: 8 April 2024, with an expectation of notification to successful applicants 7-10 days after. Eligibility: Any undergraduate, post-graduate, or research student in SALC.
The Bogdanow Lectures Bequest
Fanni Bogdanow, PhD graduation 1957
This new annual public lecture series has been made possible as a result of the generous bequest to the University by Fanni Bogdanow (1927-2013), a former Professor of French and Medieval Studies at Manchester and a child refugee on the Kindertransporte.
"Fanni Bogdanow was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. When she was 11, in 1939 and just in time, her parents loaded her on to a Kindertransport train bound for Britain. She was taken in by a Quaker family in Manchester to whom she remained very grateful. In 1945, she won a scholarship to study French at Manchester University; she was to stay at Manchester, as undergraduate, postgraduate, lecturer, reader and professor, for the rest of her life. Her parents, astonishingly, survived between them Dachau, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen; to Fanni's intense joy, her mother later joined her in Manchester..." [More from The Guardian]
Fanni Bogdanow's full life story interview was conducted in April 2002 by one of the Centre's former PhD students, Ros Livshin, and was archived at the Oral Testimony Archive of the Manchester Jewish Museum, a collection compiled under the supervison of the Centre's Bill Williams.
See also:
Fanni Bogdanow, 'Anne Frank and the Holocaust' in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 88:1 (2006), 207-215.
Fanni Bogdanow, 'From Holocaust Survivor to Arthurian Scholar' in On Arthurian Women, edited by Bonnie Wheeler and Fiona Tolhurst (Dallas: Scriptorium Press, 2001), 387-394.
As part of her bequest to the University of Manchester, Prof. Fanny Bogdanow funded a number of student travel bursaries for educational visits to concentration camps. This year the Centre for Jewish Studies can allocate a number of awards of £400 each (based on an estimated cost of £230 for flights and £115 for hotel/tour, plus £55 contribution for food/other expenses). The expectation is that the visit would take place during the period 1 January - 30 June 2017.