Mandi Shepp (right) and a student working with archival materials.
Reed Library Associate Librarian Mandi Shepp authored a book chapter, “Ghosts in Grey Boxes: Trauma and Loss in the Archives.”
The chapter is part of the edited volume “Libraries, Archives and Collective Grief,” published by Bristol University Press as part of its Death and Culture series.
The chapter discusses whether the archives should be considered a site of thanatourism, and examines demonstrable and documented grief across three of SUNY Fredonia's Reed Library archival collections: the Browder-Wallenberg Holocaust Oral Histories Collection, the Stefan Zweig Collection and the Robert Rie Papers. The collections are uniquely related through the historical impact of World War II and the Holocaust on Europe and their documentation of Jewish exile experiences, Shepp noted, and each collection reflects the development of grief as a reaction to traumatic experiences in different ways.
More information about the book and the series is online.
