Margarita Pedchenko
Local
Margarita Pedchenko is a current PhD student at Victoria University of Wellington, specializing in intergenerational memory transmission within visual media. She holds an MA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from the University of Haifa. In her PhD research, she explores postmemorial experiences of the third generation of Holocaust survivors expressed through the medium of graphic novels, comparing them to similar works created by the descendants of perpetrators. Beyond academia, she is interested in museum management; her practical experience includes serving as an assistant curator at the Hecht Museum in Haifa and as an archival assistant at the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives in Budapest.
Session 1
The Rhythm of Drawing: Processing Violent History Through Graphic Novels
Can comics address—or even work through—traumatic histories? Approaching comic book structure as a “conversation” with the reader, we will discuss how contemporary artists use the medium to process disastrous events. First, we will look at third-generation Holocaust narratives as a study in memory. Then, we will explore recent works from Israel post-October 7th as a study in real-time crisis. How does the comics medium shift from a tool of secondary witnessing to a mode of documenting direct encounters with atrocity?