Dr Victoria Nesfield

Teaching

My primary teaching areas are in the introduction to the study of religion, the Holocaust and Genocide, and Literature.

I have previously taught undergraduate modules on Religion and Peacemaking, Conflict, Introduction to the Old Testament, and Philosophy of World Religion, and contributed to undergraduate Religion and Visual Arts and MA Religion in the Public Sphere modules.

In the academic year 2022/23 I am teaching: Studying Religion (Level 4), Religion and Literature (Level 5), Work-Related Learning (Level 5) and Responses to the Holocaust (Level 6).

I teach on the following courses:

• Religion, Philosophy and Ethics BA (Hons)
• Religion and Theology BA (Hons)

Research

My primary research interests are the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi. My research activity has spanned several areas of Holocaust studies, from representations of Jewish identity, to engaging the public with Holocaust memory, to Holocaust education. I have recently published a co-edited volume on The Novels of Elie Wiesel (with Philip Smith, SUNY Press, 2019) and have a forthcoming co-edited volume on Representing Childhood and Atrocity (with Philip Smith, SUNY Press, 2022).

My current research considers Holocaust memory in Romania, as it vies for attention and recognition with the more recent Community memory. This research is framed by Elie Wiesel's hometown of Sighet and the opening of Romania's first Holocaust museum in Wiesel's childhood home as the site of both Holocaust memory and education on Judaism and Jewish identity in a country grappling with a more recent dark history.

Publications

Journal articles

'Evaluating the pilot Narnian Virtues Character Education English Curriculum Project: a study among 11- to13-year old students' (with Leslie J. Francis, Mark A. Pike, Thomas Lickona and David W. Lankshear). Journal of Beliefs & Values, 39(2) 2018: 233-49.

'Conceptualising and testing the Narnian Character Virtue Scales: a study among 12- to 13-year-old students' (with Leslie J. Francis, David W. Lankshear, Mark Pike and Tom Lickona). Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 20(9) 2017: 860-72.

'Character Education in a Pluralistic Context: Can and Should We Teach Values?', Hillary Place Papers Issue 3: Future Directions in the Educational Research Community. Leeds: University of Leeds, Feb 2016.

'The Narnian Virtues and the Tao: C.S. Lewis as Character Educator' (with Mark Pike & Thomas Lickona), Journal of Character Education, 11(2) 2015: 71-86.

'Keeping Holocaust Education Relevant in a Changing Landscape: Seventy Years On', Research in Education94 (November) 2015: 44-54.

'The Sacrosanctity of the Holocaust and its Influence on Judaism and the State of Israel', International Journal of Public Theology, 9(2) May (2015) 223-46.

'Holocaust Literature and Historiography in Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces (with Philip Smith), Journal of European Studies, 43(1) March (2013): 14 - 26.

Edited books

Victoria Nesfield & Philip Smith (eds) Atrocity and Children's Literature (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2022)

Victoria Nesfield & Philip Smith (eds) The Struggle for Understanding: Elie Wiesel's Literary Works (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019)

Pauline Kollontai & Victoria Nesfield (eds), Building Communities of Reconciliation: Christian Theologies of Peace and Reconciliation (Seoul: Nanumsa, 2012)

Book chapters

'Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers: Engaging Scarborough with the Holocaust' in Pauline Kollontai, Sebastian Kim and Sue Yore (eds) Mediating Peace: Reconciliation through Visual Art, Music and Film, pp. 37-56 (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2016)

'A Silent and Empty Sky: Primo Levi's Confrontation with Faith' in Pauline Kollontai and Richard Noake (eds) Building Communities of Reconciliation: Christian Responses to Situations of Conflict (Seoul: Nanumsa, 2012)

Book reviews

Emily Miller Budick, The Subject of Holocaust Fiction (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2015), Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, October 2017.

Minna Vuohelainen and Arthur Chapman, Interpreting Primo Levi: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History August 2016.

Emily Miller Budick, The Subject of Holocaust Fiction (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2015), Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History, May 2016.

Steven T. Katz and Alan Rosen, eds, 'Elie Wiesel: Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives' (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2013). Journal of Jewish Studies, September 2015.

Invited papers

Apr 2015 'Germany's Confrontation with the Holocaust in a Global Context', Exhibition launch, Durban Holocaust Centre, South Africa

Apr 2015 'Germany's Confrontation with the Holocaust in a Global Context', Holocaust Representations seminar, National University of Ireland: Cork, Ireland

Nov 2014 'Reading the Holocaust in Jewish Hermeneutics', Representations of the Holocaust in Literature, Art, Film and Monument, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Nov 2014 'Religious Responses to Genocide: The Holocaust and Never Again', Interfaith Week event, Leeds Trinity University and Churches Together in England, Leeds Trinity University

Apr 2013 'Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers: Engaging Scarborough with the Holocaust', Yom HaShoah Symposium, Kaye Academic College of Education, Israel

Conference and symposia presentations

Invited Papers

Apr 2015 'Germany's Confrontation with the Holocaust in a Global Context', Exhibition launch, Durban Holocaust Centre, South Africa

Apr 2015 'Germany's Confrontation with the Holocaust in a Global Context', Holocaust Representations seminar, National University of Ireland: Cork, Ireland

Nov 2014 'Reading the Holocaust in Jewish Hermeneutics', Representations of the Holocaust in Literature, Art, Film and Monument, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Nov 2014 'Religious Responses to Genocide: The Holocaust and Never Again', Interfaith Week event, Leeds Trinity University and Churches Together in England, Leeds Trinity University

Apr 2013 'Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers: Engaging Scarborough with the Holocaust', Yom HaShoah Symposium, Kaye Academic College of Education, Israel

Conference Papers

Aug 2022 'Reframing Elie Wiesel: Politics, Israel and the Holocaust Lens', Rosemary Horowitz z''l Memorial Conference '22, Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies, Appalachian State University (US)

Jul 2022 'Never Again, Again: History and the Question of Intervention', Religion, Politics and IR Panel on the International Crisis in Ukraine, 9^th International Conference on Eurasian Politics & Society, CESRAN and York St John University

May 2022 '“And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”: Judeo-Christian identity and emotional conflict in Holocaust and Communist memory in Sighet', Cultural Pluralism and Identity in European Politics after 1945, European Network Remembrance and Solidarity and Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (RO)

Nov 2021 'Holocaust Memory in the Shadow of Communism', Space and Memory in Holocaust Representation, Northumbria University

Jul 2015 'Character Education', School of Education Research Conference, University of Leeds

Jul 2014 'Striking a Balance Between Memorialising and Moralising: Exploring Germany's Confrontation with the Holocaust', Cultures of Commemoration: Representations of the Past in Contemporary Culture, University of Portsmouth

Apr 2014 'Presenting and Representing Narratives of Suffering in Testimonial Literature', Transnational Holocaust Memory: Coming-to-Terms with Nazism and Apartheid University of Leeds  and University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Sep 2013 'The Sanctification of the Holocaust and its Impact on Israel and Judaism in the Media', The Word and the World: Public Theology in an Age of Global Media, Global Network of Public Theology Conference, University of Chester

Jul 2013 'The Iconography of Suffering: Dominant Themes in Holocaust Memory and Postmemory', Trauma and Memory: The Holocaust in Contemporary Culture, University of Portsmouth

Nov 2012 'Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers: Engaging Scarborough with the Holocaust', Mediating Peace through Art, Music and Film: 4th International Conference on Peace and Reconciliation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Jul 2012 'Reconstructing the Concentrationary Universe in Literature, Art and Beyond', International Society for the Study of European Ideas International Conference, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus                

Sep 2011 'Crossing the Threshold: Philosophy as Gateway to the Hermeneutic Cycle', (joint paper with Amy Christmas, Fraser Mann, Steve Nash and Ian Scales) Society for European Philosophy and Forum for European Philosophy International Conference, York St John University

Apr 2011 'The Holocaust Experience: The Role of 'the Place' in Holocaust Education, Concentrationary Imaginaries: Imaginaries of Violence International Conference, University of Leeds

Aug 2010 'The Canto of Primo Levi: The Presence of Dante in Levi's Holocaust Narrative', European Society for the Study of English ESSE-10 International Conference, University of Turin, Italy

Conference Co-organisation

Jan 2015 Transnational Holocaust Memory Conference, University of Leeds (co-organiser)

Nov 2012 4^th International Conference on Peace and Reconciliation: Mediating Peace through Art, Music and Film, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (co-organiser)

Press and public engagement

Online

Feb 2022 'Never Again… Again: History and the Question of Intervention', Responding to the War in Ukraine, Centre for Religion in Society, York St John University blog.yorksj.ac.uk/cris/responding-to-the-war-in-ukraine/

Nov 2020 Interview on The Struggle for Understanding, New Books Network newbooksnetwork.com/the-struggle-for-understanding

Oct 2020 Response to Dr Michael Richardson presentation on Fugitive Pieces. Invited contribution to The Arctic University Norway, Literature / History / Human Rights: ReadRespond Initiative site.uit.no/readrespond/past-events/

Feb 2015 'Germany's Confrontation with the Holocaust in a Global Context' (with Bill Niven) National Holocaust Centre and Museum Blog. nationalholocaustcentre.net/blog/germanys-confrontation

Jan 2015 'Holocaust Memorial Day: What Happened to Never Again?' The Conversation theconversation.com/holocaust-memorial-day-what-happened-to-never-again-36629

Professional activities

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), a member of the British Association for Holocaust Studies (BAHS) and a member of the Memory Studies Association.

I am part of York St John's Centre for Religion in Society.