Helga Thorson
Professor
Germanic and Slavic Studies, SLLC
- Contact:
- Office: CLE D255 helgat@uvic.ca 250-721-7320
- Credentials:
- PhD (University of Minnesota)
- Area of expertise:
- Holocaust studies; Late 19th- and early 20th-century German and Austrian literature and culture; History of gender and sexuality; Foreign language pedagogy; Scandinavian studies
Bio
Helga Thorson teaches German language courses as well as cultural studies courses on early twentieth-century literature, Nazi cinema, and Holocaust literature and film. In 2012 she received the Faculty of Humanities Teaching Excellence Award, followed by UVic’s Excellence in Teaching for Experiential Learning Award in 2017, and a 3M National Teaching Fellowship in 2019.
In 2011, she co-founded and taught the . This four-week course examines Holocaust memorialization in Central Europe. During the first week of the course students engage in intensive study at the University of Victoria. This is followed by three weeks in Central Europe focusing specifically on Holocaust memorial sites, former concentration camps, museums, cemeteries, and monuments.
Dr. Thorson is actively engaged in the Holocaust Studies MA stream in Germanic and Slavic Studies in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at the University of Victoria. This is the only program of its kind in all of Canada. Together with her students, Dr. Thorson has been involved in various international and local digital memorial projects, including the digital mapping project and the digital exhibit.
Selected Publications
Grete Meisel-Hess: The New Woman and the Sexual Crisis
After the Holocaust: Human Rights and Genocide Education in the Approaching Post-Witness Era
Out There Learning: Critical Reflections on Off-Campus Study Programs
Shaking the Empire, Shaking Patriarchy: The Growth of a Feminist Consciousness Across the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
Books:
Abel, Britt, Nicole Grewling, Beth Muellner and Helga Thorson, eds. Victoria: ePublishing.Services, University of Victoria Libraries, 2021. 238 pages.
Hallgrímsdóttir, Helga, and Helga Thorson, eds. Victoria: ePublishing Services, University of Victoria Libraries, 2021. 304 pages.
Pető, Andrea, and Helga Thorson, eds. . Tom Lantos Institute, 2015. 109 pages.
Selected Journal Articles:
Stehle, Maria, and Helga Thorson. “Communi-care, or How to Create Communities of Care in an Uncaring System: Introduction.” Feminist German Studies, vol. 40, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2024, pp. 1–14.
Smith, Dawn, and Helga Thorson. “Building Transdisciplinary Relationships through Multidirectional Memory Work and Education.” Seminar, vol. 55, 2019, pp. 342–359.
Selected Book Chapters:
Thorson, Helga. “Social Justice Pedagogy: Memorial Work in Action.” Social Justice Pedagogies: Multidisciplinary Practices and Approaches, edited by Katrina Sark, University of Toronto Press, 2023, pp. 46–59.
Thorson, Helga. “Feminist Choices: Contemplating the Intricacies of Feminist Spaces.” Cultivating Feminist Choices: A FEminiSTSCHRIFT in Honor of Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres, edited by Britt Abel, Nicole Grewling, Beth Muellner, and Helga Thorson. Victoria: ePublishing.Services, University of Victoria Libraries, 2021, pp. 11–25.
Schwartz, Agatha, and Helga Thorson. “The Aesthetics of Change: Women Writers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.” Crossing Central Europe: Continuities and Transformations, 1900 and 2000, edited by Helga Mitterbauer and Carrie Smith-Prei. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017. pp. 27–49.
Digital Humanities Scholarship:
An exhibit in collaboration with Matt Huculak, University of Victoria Libraries and students at the University of Victoria.
A digital mapping project in collaboration with the Servitengasse 1938 working group in Vienna, Stewart Arneil at UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre and students at the University of Victoria, 2020.
Selected Presentations/Talks
Poster session, “Servitengasse 1938: Gender Implications of the Holocaust.” Coalition of Women in German ConferencePortland, Oregon, November 4, 2023
Panel member, “Welcome to our Classroom.” Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, June 15, 2023.
Panel member, “Supporting Thriving German Studies Programs in Canada.” German Studies Canada panel. Online, April 17, 2023.
Conference presentation, “Intersections and Potential Affinities between Indigenous Studies and Feminist German Studies: Three Experiences.” Coalition of Women in German Conference. Online, October 17, 2020.
Panel member, “Holocaust Education: The Antidote to Anti-Semitism?” World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust. Vancouver, BC, November 2, 2019.
Conference seminar, “Digitally Mapping the Servitengasse in Vienna: A Collaborative Holocaust Memorial Project.” German Studies Association. Portland, OR, October 5, 2019.
Conference presentation. “Negotiating Feminism in the Age of the ‘New Woman’: Grete Meisel-Hess’s Fictional Dialogues with Hedwig Dohm.” Coalition of Women in German Conference. University of the South, Sewanee, TN, October 19, 2018.