Loyola political science professor receives academic prizes for recent book
Janine P. Holc, Ph.D., professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland, has been awarded three academic prizes for her 2023 book, The Weavers of Trautenau: Jewish Female Forced Labor in the Holocaust.
Holc received the Rachel Feldhay Brenner Award in Polish Jewish Studies from the Polish Institute of Arts & Sciences; the 2024 Heldt Prize for best book in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian women’s and gender studies from the Association for Women in Slavic Studies; and the Sara A. Whaley Prize for best book addressing women and labor from intersectional perspectives from the National Women’s Studies Association. The book was also a finalist for the Jewish Book Council Awards.
“Rigorously academic in her approaches, Holc makes particularly insightful use of the Shoah archives. Her focus on micro history provides unique contributions to our understanding of how girls and young women experienced the move into adulthood under conditions of forced labor and separation from their families,” remarked the Association for Women in Slavic Studies in their announcement of the Heldt Prizes. “Her attention to the dynamics of care reveals the challenges of moral choices, trauma, and reconciliation faced by the young women in these harrowing conditions. Holc adds a brilliant work to women's history of the Holocaust.”
The Weavers of Trautenau was supported by a grant from Loyola’s Office of Peace and Justice.
“The Office of Peace and Justice is proud to have supported Dr. Janine Holc’s research,” said Heidi Shaker, Ph.D., director of the Office of Peace and Justice and associate professor of French. “The Weavers of Trautenau makes significant contributions to the field of Peace and Justice studies, as it details the forced labor of 3,000 young Jewish women during the Holocaust in what is now the Czech Republic. Her work centers marginalized female voices, drawing upon the testimonies of 125 survivors, in order to paint a nuanced picture of their daily lives, as well as to identify persecution patterns and perpetrator processes. We are honored to be associated with such thoughtful, nuanced, and meaningful scholarship.”