Dr. Annette Becker

Professional Background

Dr. Becker is a Professor of Contemporary History at Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense and a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She has written extensively on the Two World Wars and the extreme violence they nurture, with an emphasis on military occupations and the two genocides, against the Armenians and the Holocaust. She has devoted research to humanitarian politics, trauma and memories, particularly among intellectuals and artists.

Dr. Becker has been a visiting scholar at numerous universities, including Princeton and the Institute for Advanced Studies, Yale, Berkeley, Rutgers and most recently at the University of Brisbane and Monash University in Australia. Her recent publications and articles include; Books: Biographie de guerre de Guillaume Apollinaire 1914-1918-2009, Tallandier, 2009. (Prix de la biographie littéraire de l’Académie française, 2010. Prix Honneur et Patrie, 2010); Les cicatrices rouges, 14-18, France et Belgique occupées, Fayard, 2010; Montrer les violences extrêmes, (théoriser, créer, muséographier) (Dir. en collaboration avec Octave Debary) Editions Creafis, 2012; Miklos Bokor (Dir. en collaboration avec Anne Bernou), INHA, Paris-Ouest/Nanterre, 2012. The French edition of The Cambridge History of the Great War in 3 volumes, (General Editor, Jay Winter), (To be published in 2014, Fayard).

Introduction, chapters, articles: “Fascination et horreur du grand massacre,” édition d’Edith Wharton, La France en guerre, 1914-1915, Tournon, 2007; “Projeter ou refouler les guerres du XX° siècle?” dans Les Mises en scène de la guerre au XXème siècle, théâtre et cinéma, (dir. L.Veray et D.Lescot), Nouveau Monde éditions, 2011; “Les monuments du 18 juin,” dans Les 18 juin, Combats et commémorations, (Dir. Philippe Oulmont), André Versailles, 2011; “Dufy et La Fin de la Grande Guerre,” dans Epinal tricolore, (dir Christian Briend,) Editions du Conseil génral des Vosges, 2011; “Les deux Emile et Rosa ; Buraglio et la Grande Guerre,” dans Pierre Buraglio, catalogue de l’Historial de la Grande Guerre, 2011; “Devenir Karski, l’usage des interviews filmées,” in Alain Kleinberger, Philippe Mesnard, eds, La Shoah, théâtre et cinéma, aux limites de la représentation, Bruxelles, 2012; “1917. Entre révolutions et camouflages,” dans 1917, Catalogue de l’exposition Beaubourg-Metz (dir. Laurent Lebon), 2012; “Claude Debussy en Grande Guerre,” dans Claude Debussy, un centenaire (dir. Myriam Chimènes), Fayard 2013 (To be published). “Les déplacements de population pendant la Grande Guerre: exodes, refuges, camps, travail forcé,” Témoigner. Entre Histoire et mémoire, Getuigen, Tussen Geschiedenis en Herinnering, Revue pluridisciplinaire de la Fondation Auschwitz, N°110, septembre 2011.

Fellowship Research

For her Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance Fellowship, Dr. Becker researched, “To Become Raphael Lemkin, to become Jan Karski: From Holocaust Messengers to World Icons.”

Dr. Becker was in residence at the Center from Janaury 1 to June 30, 2013.