Head of Shoah Foundation to detail Holocaust holography work in public UCI talk

EVENT:  Stephen Smith, executive director of the Shoah Foundation, will share his progress on digitizing the stories of Holocaust survivors using interactive, three-dimensional exhibits and holograms that live on long after the storytellers have died.

WHEN/WHERE:  5-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 18, The Paul Merage School of Business auditorium (bldg. 222, grid F10 on campus map: https://communications.uci.edu/documents/pdf/UCI_15_map_campus_core.pdf)

INFORMATION:  Media planning to attend should contact Heather Ashbach at 949-824-1577 or hashbach@uci.edu. Admission is free and open to the public; parking is available for $2 per hour, or $10 per day, in the Social Science Parking Structure (grid F10 on campus map). RSVPs are being accepted online at http://bit.ly/1MO2ygw.

BACKGROUND:  Smith’s work with the Shoah Foundation – founded by filmmaker Steven Spielberg – at the University of Southern California is focused on optimizing the effectiveness of Holocaust survivors’ testimonies for education, research and advocacy purposes. A theologian, he has a particular interest in the Holocaust’s impact on religious and philosophical thought and practice. Smith collaborates with genocide researchers and teachers around the world to develop educator training and multidisciplinary programs that foster learning about the causes and effects of mass violence. As an international speaker, he lectures widely on the history of and collective response to the Holocaust, genocide and crimes against humanity. His current digitization project is part of New Dimensions in Testimony, a high-tech initiative at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies.