Monika Rice

Monika Rice is the Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Russian and East European Studies at Lafayette College and former director of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program at Gratz College. A native of Poland, she holds B.A. and M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and a Ph.D. in Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Her first book, “What! Still Alive?! Jewish Survivors in Poland and Israel Remember Homecoming” (Syracuse University Press 2017) was a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.  The book chronicles the evolution of Holocaust survivors’ memories of their first encounters with Polish neighbors after the war, recorded in immediate postwar testimonies, as compared to similar accounts collected years later in Israel.

Rice has been a recipient of several prestigious fellowships and grants, and a selected participant in several international scholarly workshops and seminars at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, and others. Her articles, book chapters, and reviews have been published in edited volumes and academic journals (Polin, Nashim, Yad Vashem Studies, Holocaust Studies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Journal of Jewish Identities, Jewish Culture and History, etc.). Her current research project investigates postwar mixed identities of Polish-Jewish doctors.