Monash University - Faculty of Arts

Arts Faculty » Historical Studies » Staff »

Personal History

Deborah Staines is a cultural theorist teaching Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation; she was previously a researcher at Macquarie University, Australia, during which time she was also a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University.

Convenor: Writing as Resistance in Times of War and Genocide international conference, Cambridge University, 2007. Speakers included Leela Ghandi, Joanna Bourke, Mark Sanders.
Convenor: Lindy Chamberlain: Nation, Law and Memory national conference, Macquarie University, 2005. Speakers included Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, John Bryson.

Current Research

I am completing my project on rethinking the Sonderkommando manuscripts of Auschwitz in terms of writing, agency and subjection.
I have begun inquiring into the biopolitics of medicine, and the historical relationships between medical practice, profit, and atrocity.

Major Publications

D. Staines, editor. 'Introduction: Interrogating the "war on terror" paradigm', Interrogating the War on Terror: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp.1–14.
D. Staines, with K. Biber, M. Arrow, editors. The Chamberlain Case Reader: Nation, Law, Memory. Nth Melbourne, VIC: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2008 (in press)
D. Staines. 'Textual traumata: letters to Lindy Chamberlain from the Australian public'. J. Life Writing, 5.1, 2008, pp.97-114.
D. Staines. 'Knowledge, memory and justice: some grey areas in contemporary Holocaust research'. J. Contemporary History, 42:4. London: Sage, 2007, pp.649–659.
D. Staines, 'Letters to Betty Ong: reading the Internet archives of 9/11 memorialisation.' Interrogating the War on Terror, Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp.158–174.
D. Staines. 'Auschwitz and the camera.' J. Mortality. 7:1, UK: Carfax, 2002, pp.13–32.
D. Staines. 'Museum Auschwitz.' J. Space & Culture. 1: 10, Canada: Carleton, 2001, pp.63–90.

Areas of Research & Supervision

Research on the Holocaust, subjection, camps, biopolitics, 'war on terror', security, climate change refugees. Texts, visual media, material culture, ethics of representation and reception, cultural theory. Cultural memory, cultural transmission, trauma theory, life writing.

Supervisions in Masters of Holocaust and Genocide minor theses; Honours theses in Holocaust related topics.

Teaching

HSY2/3580 - The Holocaust in an Age of Genocide
HSY4/5290 - Holocaust Memories: Landscape, Mourning, Identity
HYM5420 - Placement Unit
Master of Holocaust and Genocide Studies