On Being a Vicarious Witness: Aktion T4 and Contesting the Erasure of Disability History

Featuring Kenny Fries, Perel, and Quintan Ana Wikswo

Moderated by Julia Watts Belser

Monday, October 18, 2021

3:00-4:15 pm EST via Zoom

Three queer Jewish disabled writers and artists each discuss their work on Aktion T4, a prime crucible of disability history. How do they avoid a sentimental or aesthetic depiction? In their work, and as they work, how do they avoid re-inscribing trauma? Because Aktion T4 has no survivors, how do writers and artists become “vicarious witnesses,” which memory studies scholar Susanne C. Knittel describes as not “an act of speaking for and thus appropriating the memory and story of someone else but rather an attempt to bridge the silence through narrative means”?

Registration is required: https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HKZhl9F5Tly_qmussfyEww

This event is free and open to the public. American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, live captioning, and image descriptions will be provided. Requests for other accommodations can be made (by 10/11/2021) by completing the accommodations request field in the Zoom registration form.

Questions about this event can be directed to  oipo@syr.edu.

This event is sponsored by the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach (OIPO) at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University through the Collaboration for Unprecedented Success and Excellence (CUSE) Grant Program with additional support from Atrocity Studies and the Practices of Social Justice; College of Visual and Performing Arts; Dept. of History; Dept. of Religion; Dept. of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition; Disability Studies; Hendricks Chapel; Jewish Studies; LGBTQ Studies; LGBTQ Resource Center; and Syracuse Hillel.

Description of full-color, accessible digital poster:

Three images, from left to right, at the top of the digital poster:

Black and white video still image of a sign with German text, “Was geschah hier im Sommer 1940? KOMMT ZU UNSERER GEDENKFEIER IN DIE STADTHALLE SONNTAG 14.SEPTEMBER ABENDS BUHR. V.V.N.,” with an arrow pointed to the left toward a dark column with a large question mark on it. [Still is from Kenny Fries’s video series, What Happened Here in the Summer of 1940?]

Color photograph of performance artist, Perel, on stage in Life (Un)Worthy of Life. Perel is dressed all in black and  stands on a dark stage, with a cane in their left hand and a red-tipped microphone in their right hand. They are looking down at an empty chair.

Color photograph from Quintan Ana Wikswo’s Tiny Urn series. An abstract conceptual photograph using a colorful collage method in shades of pink, red, and orange, integrating forensic Nazi ecological and architectural elements via multiple photographic exposures.

Text (in black, white, and orange sans serif fonts, with hyperlinks in blue) reads:

On Being a Vicarious Witness: Aktion T4 and Contesting the Erasure of Disability History

Featuring Kenny Fries, Perel, and Quintan Ana Wikswo

Moderated by Julia Watts Belser

Monday, October 18, 2021

3:00-4:15 pm EST via Zoom

Four close-up, color photographs (with names beneath them, in bold orange sans serif font) depicting each of the presenters and the moderator. From left to right, in the middle of the digital poster:

Kenny Fries, with closely-cropped, dark brown hair, and wearing a purple shirt and rimless glasses, looks upwardly at the camera, with a slight smile. The image has a blurred off-white background with a dark frame or window edge behind Fries’s left side, the image’s upper right. [Photo credit: Michael R. Dekker. Credit text, in bold orange sans serif font, is above the name, Kenny Fries.]

Perel, with short, medium-brown hair, and wearing a black shirt, holds a microphone up to their mouth. Perel looks away from the camera, addressing the audience. The image has a black background.

Quintan Ana Wikswo, with short, wavy white hair, and wearing a dark top with thin shoulder straps, looks directly at the camera. The image has a tan background with fragments of a botanical pattern shown where Quintan Ana Wikswo is seated.

Julia Watts Belser, with shoulder-length, medium-brown hair, and wearing glasses, a red top, and a purple and pink knitted head covering, smiles broadly while looking at the camera. The image has a blurred floral background.

Three queer Jewish disabled writers and artists each discuss their work on Aktion T4, a prime crucible of disability history. How do they avoid a sentimental or aesthetic depiction? In their work, and as they work, how do they avoid re-inscribing trauma? Because Aktion T4 has no survivors, how do writers and artists become “vicarious witnesses,” which memory studies scholar Susanne C. Knittel describes as not “an act of speaking for and thus appropriating the memory and story of someone else but rather an attempt to bridge the silence through narrative means”?

Registration is required: https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HKZhl9F5Tly_qmussfyEww

This event is free and open to the public. American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, live captioning, and image descriptions will be provided. Requests for other accommodations can be made (by 10/11/2021) by completing the accommodations request field in the Zoom registration form.

Questions about this event can be directed to  oipo@syr.edu.

This event is sponsored by the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach (OIPO) at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University through the Collaboration for Unprecedented Success and Excellence (CUSE) Grant Program with additional support from Atrocity Studies and the Practices of Social Justice; College of Visual and Performing Arts; Dept. of History; Dept. of Religion; Dept. of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition; Disability Studies; Hendricks Chapel; Jewish Studies; LGBTQ Studies; LGBTQ Resource Center; and Syracuse Hillel.