Erica Lehrer Explained

Erica Lehrer (born 1969) is an anthropologist, curator, and academic specializing in post-Holocaust Jewish culture, museum studies, ethnography, and public scholarship. She is Associate Professor of History and Sociology/Anthropology at Concordia University, where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Museum and Heritage Studies and serves as director of the Curating and Public Scholarship Lab at Concordia University.^{[1] [2]}

Education

She has received a B.A. from Grinnell College and M.A. and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan.^[1]

Career

In 2013, Lehrer curated "Souvenir, Talisman, Toy," an ethnographic exhibition of historical and contemporary Polish-made figurines depicting Jews (including the modern antisemitic Jew with a coin figurines), at the Ethnographic Museum of Kraków. A smaller selection of objects and media from the exhibit was on display from July 28 – August 30, 2013, at the Galicia Jewish Museum.^{[3] [4] [5]} In 2016, she curated a new exhibition at the Galicia Jewish Museum titled "A Single Point Perspective/Punkt Zbiezny."

Personal life and family

Lehrer's uncle was physicist Frederick Reif, who was married to Mildred Dresselhaus.^[6] Her mother, Liane Reif-Lehrer, was a Holocaust survivor and professor at Harvard Medical School.^{[7] [8]} Her brother, Damon Lehrer, is a children's book author.^[9]

Awards

• Canada Research Chair in Museum and Heritage Studies^[2]
• Canada Research Chair in Post-Conflict Memory, Ethnography and Museology
• Hazel D. Cole Fellowship in Jewish Studies, University of Washington^[10]
• Illinois Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign^[11]

Publications

• "Curatorial Dreams: Critics Imagine Exhibitions", McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016,
• "Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland", Indiana University Press, 2015,
• Na szczęście to Żyd / Lucky Jews: Poland's Jewish Figurines, Ha!art Press, 2014,
• Jewish Poland Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Unquiet Places, Indiana University Press, 2013,
• co-editor, Curating Difficult Knowledge: Violent Pasts in Public Places, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011,

External links

• • The Curating and Public Scholarship Lab
• Souvenir, Talisman, Toy exhibition website

Notes and References

1. Web site: Faculty Page, Department of History, Concordia University.
2. Web site: Canada Research Chairs - Erica Lehrer.
3. https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-why-are-the-poles-amassing-jewish-figurines-1.5331736 Why Are the Poles Amassing Jewish Figurines?
4. https://www.thejc.com/news/world/poland-s-mantelpiece-jews-1.62534 Poland's mantelpiece Jews
5. http://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/slh/article/download/slh.2015.010/1596 Cała, Alina. "„Pamiątka, Zabawka, Talizman/Souvenir, Talisman, Toy”(wystawa w Muzeum Etnograficznym w Krakowie, 2013 rok, kuratorka: Erica Lehrer)." Studia Litteraria et Historica 3-4 (2015): 265-271.
6. Web site: Frederick Reif - Obituary . 2022-06-18 . www.aapt.org.
7. Web site: Liane Reif . 2022-06-18 . encyclopedia.ushmm.org . en.
8. Web site: In Memoriam - 2019 College of Chemistry . 2022-06-18 . chemistry.berkeley.edu . en.
9. Web site: Damon Lehrer – Janna Co . 2022-06-18 . jannaco.co.
10. Web site: Faculty Page, Faculty of Arts and Science, Concordia University.
11. Web site: Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130214075305/http://www.iprh.illinois.edu/history/fellows/ . 2013-02-14 .