Joan Ringelheim papers
Extent and Medium
boxes
5
Creator(s)
- Joan Ringelheim
Biographical History
Joan Ringelheim attended Oberlin Conservatory in 1957-58 where she majored in music. In 1959 she transferred to Boston University from which she received her B.A. degree in 1961 with a major in History. She received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University in 1968. She taught philosophy at DePauw University, Northeastern University, Connecticut College, University of Bridgeport, and SUNY Stony Brook. During this period two major foci emerged in her teaching and research: the Holocaust and feminist theory. Together they opened up a new area of investigation--Women and the Holocaust. In 1982-83 she received The American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, a Kent Fellowship from the Center for Humanities at Wesleyan University; and a grant from The New York Council for the Humanities to produce the first conference on Women and the Holocaust. Her publications include: “The Unethical and the Unspeakable: Women and the Holocaust” in The Simon Wiesenthal Annual (Vol. I, 1984); “Women and the Holocaust--a Reconsideration of Research” in Signs (Summer, 1985, Vol. 10, Number 4), with a revised version in Women and the Holocaust, Different Voices edited by C. Rittner and J. Roth, (Paragon Press, 1993), and "The Split Between Gender and the Holocaust" in Women in the Holocaust, edited by D. Ofer and L. Weitzman (Yale University Press, 1998). She was hired by the United States Holocaust Museum in 1989 and served in a number of capacities: Research Director for the Permanent Exhibition, Director of Education and Director of Oral History. She retired from the Museum in 2007.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Joan Ringelheim
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Joan Ringelheim
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Joan Ringelheim
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Joan Ringelheim donated her papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 and 2016. The accessions previously numbered 2011.453.1 and 2016.476.1 have been incorporated into this collection
Scope and Content
The Joan Ringelheim papers consist of materials related to the conference Ringelheim organized in 1983, “Women Surviving: The Holocaust,” including conference planning materials, correspondence, and photographs, as well as writings, lectures, subject files, printed materials, and correspondence documenting Ringelheim’s scholarly work on the subject of women and the Holocaust. The “Women Surviving: The Holocaust” series documents the groundbreaking conference Ringelheim organized in New York in 1983 on the topic of women and the Holocaust and combining Holocaust study with feminist theory. The series includes conference planning materials, correspondence, and photographs. Subseries 1 includes applications, announcements, notes, proceedings, questionnaires, reports, and clippings documenting the organization, execution, and evaluation of the “Women Surviving: The Holocaust” conference. Subseries 2 includes correspondence with conference organizers, participants, attendees, and interested parties and documents conference planning as well as reflections and feedback following the conference. Subseries 3 consist of photographs depicting conference organizers, participants, and attendees during conference registration, presentations, workshops, and breaks. The writings series consists of published and unpublished articles, lectures, and essays as well as a book proposal and unpublished book manuscript. Most of the writings document RIngelheim’s work combining feminist theory with Holocaust studies. Subject files consists of notes, correspondence, printed materials, and photocopies of source materials on topics related to women’s experiences during the Holocaust. Subjects include lesbians, menstruation, pregnancy, abortion, and the shaving of women’s head. This series also includes statistical information about transports, labor selection, murder, and survival rates in several countries, ghettos, and concentration camps examining patterns of difference between women’s and men’s experiences. Printed materials include clippings about Joan Ringelheim and her academic work as well as photocopies of articles by other Holocaust scholars about the experiences of women during the Holocaust. The small correspondence series consists of correspondence Ringelheim received from Irene Eber and Raul Hilberg about their academic careers and research pursuits. This series also includes praise and criticism in responses to Ringelheim’s article “Women and the Holocaust: A Reconsideration of Research” published in Signs in 1985.
System of Arrangement
The Joan Ringelheim papers are arranged as five series and three subseries: Series 1: Conference: “Women Surviving: The Holocaust,” 1979-1985 Subseries 1: Conference planning, 1980-1983 Subseries 2: Correspondence, 1979-1985 Subseries 3: Photographs, 1983 Series 2: Writings, 1980-2008 Series 3: Subject files, approximately 1980-1996 Series 4: Printed materials, approximately 1980-1999 Series 5: Correspondence, 1978-1987
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Joan Ringelheim
People
- Joan Ringelheim
- Ringelheim, Joan.
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Jewish women in the Holocaust.
- Feminism.
- Holocaust survivors--United States.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document