WojciechSoczewica

COMTOG Interview with Wojciech Soczewica on games and ‘My Memory of Us’

by InterviewsMONITORMultimediaVideos

Wojciech Soczewica is the Chief Executive Officer of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. “My Memory of Us” integrates real stories from individuals into its fictional narrative. By including these stories, the game’s creators, Jablonski and Janczuk, gave players a more personal and emotional connection to the events of the Second World War and the Nazi invasion of Poland. Even Soczewica, who expressed some reservations about using video games to address past traumatic events, acknowledged the importance of personal stories in shaping our Collective Memory. By incorporating individual perspectives into its narrative, “My Memory of Us” highlights the importance of preserving and sharing these stories to enhance our collective historical memory.

Étienne Quintal and Daniel Collen

COMTOG Interview with Étienne Quintal and Daniel Collen on ‘The Light in the Darkness’

by InterviewsMONITORMultimediaVideos

Étienne Quintal and Daniel Collen are researchers from the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre responsible for the Online Hate Research and Education Project (OHREP) and Hatepedia project of the Centre. The Light in the Darkness is a narrative-driven, educational game about the Holocaust written by a survivor of the 1942 Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup. It tells the story of a working-class immigrant family of Polish Jews in Vichy, France, during World War II from before the occupation until the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup. The game conveys the painful, tragic, real-life stories of Jews in vivid detail. It helps to keep them alive in the hearts and minds of the next generations by teaching their stories in ways that will help others learn and help humanity avoid repeating its worst mistakes.

Alexis M. Lerner

COMTOG Interview with Alexis M. Lerner on ‘The Light in the Darkness’

by Editor’s ChoiceInterviewsMultimediaVideos

Dr Alexis M. Lerner is an assistant professor of Political Science at the US Naval Academy and a Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, who has surveyed North American youth about the Holocaust and antisemitism. The Light in the Darkness is a narrative-driven, educational game about the Holocaust written by a survivor of the 1942 Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup. It tells the story of a working-class immigrant family of Polish Jews in Vichy, France, during World War II from before the occupation until the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup. The game conveys the painful, tragic, real-life stories of Jews in vivid detail. It helps to keep them alive in the hearts and minds of the next generations by teaching their stories in ways that will help others learn and help humanity avoid repeating its worst mistakes.

LucBernard

COMTOG Interview with Luc Bernard on ‘The Light in the Darkness’

by Editor’s ChoiceInterviewsMultimediaVideos

As part of the COMTOG project, we conducted interviews about The Light in the Darkness. Luc Bernard is the Co-Founder & Executive Director for Voices of the Forgotten and the director, creative and art director of the game, The Light in the Darkness. Over 15 years, Luc Bernard has developed an original idea to create a video game that would teach the history of the Holocaust to a new generation who cannot listen to the testimonies of a decreasing number of survivors. Knowing the story of his maternal grandmother, who looked after a kinder transport child, he had detailed knowledge of the atrocities of the Holocaust. He also grew concerned that the impact of the Holocaust was being progressively minimised and education about it increasingly ignored. Therefore the objective of his video game is to get the audience curious to learn about the Holocaust again and to remember those who are forever lost. The Light in the Darkness can be considered an educational and remembrance project targeting mainly teenagers and anyone who wants to play it.

SummSchool1

ECPS Academy – Summer School 2022: “Populism in Europe: Surveying the Populist Moment” by Dr Paul Taggart

by Ecps AcademyECPS YouthEditor’s ChoiceMultimediaVideos

The lecture covers the nature of populism in contemporary Europe and put this into context with an overview of the study of populism in Europe in the past thirty years, and with a definition of populism and with consideration of the diversity of populist parties currently in Europe. The lecture ends by setting up a discussion of the causes of populism.

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ECPS Academy – Summer School 2022: “Populism and Gender: Gender Identity in Populist Discourse” by Dr Haley McEwen

by Ecps AcademyECPS YouthEditor’s ChoiceMultimediaVideos

This session examines the emergence of ‘anti-gender’, or ‘pro-family’ ideology and transnational countermovement building against sexuality and gender related rights. It traces the historical emergence of the so-called ‘pro-family’ movement, and show how key concepts and ideologies informing this movement are informed by white supremacist and heteropatriarchal geo-political interests. The lecture focuses specifically on ‘anti-gender’/‘pro-family’ activities in African contexts, but will also highlight some of the movements activities at global scales. The lecture considers the following questions in its interrogation of the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and geo-politics within ‘pro-family’ discourse and ideology: What geo-political interests are at stake within anti-gender/pro-family discourses of ‘gender’ and ‘family’? What does anti-gender/pro-family discourse and ideology reveal about the intersections of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy? How does the ‘pro-family’/‘anti-gender’ movement relate to other right wing populist movements?

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ECPS Academy – Summer School 2022: “The Populist Hype and the Mainstreaming of the Far-Right” by Dr Aurelien Mondon

by Ecps AcademyECPS YouthEditor’s ChoiceMultimediaVideos

This lecture provides an overview of critical approaches to populism studies. In particular, it focuses on concepts such as anti-populism and populist hype and how the uses and misuses of the concept of populism can impact on the democratic process. To illustrate this impact, the lecture also focuses primarily on the far right and the role populist hype has played in its mainstreaming.

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ECPS Academy – Summer School 2022: “Populism and Economic Performance: Implications on Institutions and Good Governance” by Dr Ibrahim Ozturk

by Ecps AcademyECPS YouthEditor’s ChoiceMultimediaVideos

This short seminar aims to introduce the concept of populism in economics in terms of its causes (i.e., globalization, income inequality, financial crisis), its mechanism of execution in economics by the populists (i.e., macroeconomics and institutions of populism), and its consequences.  The economic argument for populism is straightforward: poor economic performance feeds dissatisfaction with the status quo. It fosters support for populist alternatives when that poor performance occurs on the watch of mainstream parties. Rising inequality augments the ranks of the left behind, fanning dissatisfaction with economic management. Declining social mobility and a dearth of alternatives reinforce the sense of hopelessness and exclusion.  However, unlike the argument they use when they are in opposition, in power, by denying and undermining professional and autonomous institutions, discrediting science and scientific knowledge, and rejecting resource constraints in economics, populists would give even more harm to the people they promised to help.

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ECPS Academy – Summer School 2022: “Russia’s populist discourse and its Invasion of Ukraine: Challenges for the EU” by Dr Neil Robinson

by Ecps AcademyECPS YouthMultimediaSocial MediaVideos

This lecture examines how populism developed from within the Russian political system under Vladimir Putin. Official populism was a response to perceived threats to the Putin regime after the 2008 economic crisis. It developed as a means of redefining legitimate political agency during the 2012 presidential election and informed the development of the Russian political system after 2012. This official populism was used to create regime supporting ideological tropes, by ‘othering’ the West and liberalism in particular. It was not, however, a means of developing an agenda for economic development. The success of official populism was therefore largely temporary in terms of social mobilization, except for a period around the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Although its political efficacy was not as total as the regime hoped Russia’s populist discourse did create discursive ‘traps’ that impelled Russia towards war against Ukraine. We will discuss these and how they will complicate relations between Russia and the West for the foreseeable future no matter what the resolution of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

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ECPS Academy – Summer School 2022: “Far Right Populism in Europe: Takeaways From the French Presidential Elections” by Dr Gilles Ivaldi

by Ecps AcademyECPS YouthEditor’s ChoiceMultimediaVideos

This lecture looks at far right populist politics in the French presidential and legislative elections in 2022. It discusses the complexification of the far right in France, with the emergence of Eric Zemmour alongside Marine Le Pen’s established National Rally, and looks at the cultural, economic and political factors behind the rise of the far right. Finally, the lecture discusses the implications of the recent wave of RN’s MPs in the National Assembly which provides the far right with new opportunities for further institutionalization within the French political system.