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Episode 9 - Sarah A. Cramsey

 

 

In the ninth episode of "History Exchange" Sarah Cramsey talks about her academic and personal relationship with Günther Bischof and his wife Melanie Boulet, her path as a historian of Jewish Studies, what makes a great historian and discusses the origins of antisemitism and the question of belonging.

Prof. Dr. Sarah A. Cramsey is the Special Chair for Central European Studies, Assistant Professor of Judaism & Diaspora Studies and Director of the Austria Centre Leiden. In her work she focuses on the history of Eastern Europe, the global Jewish experience throughout history and meaningful Jewish diasporas following the Holocaust, World War II and postwar events between Berlin and Moscow. Sarah Cramsey started her education at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she received her B.A. in History and Religious Studies. She then went on to receive her M.A. in Jewish Studies at Oxford University and an M.A. in History at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Cramsey further received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkely in late modern European history, Jewish History and Political Science, with a designated emphasis in Jewish Studies in 2014. Her publications include "Jan Masaryk and the Palestinian Solution: Solving the German, Jewish, and Statelessness Questions in East-Central Europe", “'It was easier with a child than without': Creating and Raising Polish Jewish Families in the wartime Soviet Union,1939-1946" and she recently published her first book, "Uprooting the Diaspora: Jewish Belonging and the “Ethnic Revolution” in Poland and Czechoslovakia, 1936-1946". Throughout her work as a historian she has received numerous awards and grants for her research projects, including the John L. Simpson Memorial Research Fellowship (2013/14), Postdoctoral Research Grant from the German Historical Institute in Warsaw (2016) and the Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award from the Association of Jewish Studies (2022) for her recent book publication. She is currently working on her next book project, titled "The Other Diaspora: Family Creation, Religious Inheritance and the Migrations of Polish Jews, 1939-2004" through which she takes a closer look at Polish families who were spread out across the Soviet Union where they survived World War II and then returned to Poland in 1946 and their subsequent path across the world.
Sarah Cramsey first got to know Günther Bischof when he reached out to tell her that her dissertation was awarded the Radomír Luža Prize, shortly after she had moved to New Orelans to take a position in the Jewish Studies department at Tulane University. Günther Bischof's willingness to mentor her and support her in her career as a young person aiming for a tenure track at a university really made an impression on her. The personal connection they established also led to Sarah Cramsey collaborating with Günther Bischof's wife Melanie Boulet in creating lesson plans with students. Furthermore, Professor Cramsey moves on to talk about how she became a historian of Eastern Europe and Jewish Studies, elaborates on her perspective on history as "a struggle to define the collective importance of the past" and the interdisciplinary nature of the field Jewish Studies. Professor Cramsey also discusses the ambivalent nature of being a historian and the significance of time for historical research. In the last part of the interview Professor Cramsey examines the origins of antisemitism and its implication for the present. We end the conversation by talking about her memories of Austria and what her favorite food is from there.

Interviewer:
Luise Pesendorfer is a master's student of English and History, Political Education and Social Studies in the teaching programme at the University of Innsbruck.
Lorenz Schober is a master's student of English and History, Political Education and Social Studies in the teaching programme at the University of Innsbruck.