“The study of History allows us to understand the world and our place in it.”
Jazmine Contreras
Assistant ProfessorHistory
Jazmine Contreras is an Assistant Professor of History at Goucher College. She completed her doctorate in European history at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her manuscript, ‘We were all in the resistance’: Historical Memory of the Holocaust and Second World War analyzes the longevity of the Dutch postwar resistance narrative and the marginalization of wartime Jewish experience to better understand the evolution of physical sites and spaces of Holocaust memory. Through an analysis of contemporary monuments, museums, and commemorations, this work explores how state institutions, nonprofits, and victim-centered organizations interact with one another and the public on the development of new memorial spaces. At Goucher, her classes seek to complicate students’ ideas of race, gender and sexuality, and violence within Europe.
Research, Scholarship, Creative Work in Progress
Dr. Contreras is currently working on a second project entitled, “Dutch and European Memory Constellations in the Age of the Far Right,” which uses the rise of the far-right in Europe as a starting point with to understand changing conceptualizations of democratic and European values. With the Netherlands as a case study, she examines the influence of far-right parties on Dutch identity and Holocaust memorialization.
Publications
“Russia, the Dutch Far Right, and the Politics of World War II Remembrance,” co-authored with Nicolaas P. Barr, New Fascism Syllabus, July 7th, 2022.
“Rewriting the Netherlands’ Past and Future: Thierry Baudet’s Use of Holocaust Analogies during the Covid-19 Pandemic,” EuropeNow, April 28th, 2022.
“Depression, Antisemitism and the Writing of History: Remembering Evelien Gans,” co-authored with Anna Hajkova, Geschichte der Gegenwart, February 20th, 2022.
External Awards, Honors, Grants
Junior Fellowship, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies (2022-23)
Teaching Grant, Holocaust Education Foundation (2021-2022)
Dissertation Completion Fellowship, German Historical Institute (spring 2020)