Alexander (Xan) Karn

BA, University of California, Los Angeles
MA, Central European University
PhD, Claremont Graduate University

• University Professor, First Year Seminars (2022-present)
• Associate Professor, Department of History, 2017-present.
• Director, Peace and Conflict Studies Program, 2018-21.
• University Professor (Interim), CORE 152, Spring 2018.
• Assistant Professor, Department of History, 2011-2017
• Visiting Assistant Professor, History/Peace and Conflict Studies, 2007-2011

Modern European history (political, cultural, and intellectual); historical dialogue, historical justice and reconciliation
 

The politics of history in contemporary societies; historical dialogue and justice in transitional regimes and established democracies; the role of historical commissions in conflict mediation and reconciliation; museums and monuments as sites of historical dialogue
 

• "Political Apologies for Historical Injustices," Global Studies Quarterly 2, no. 4 (2022): 1-10.
• "Museums and Memorials as Sites of Dialogue: Historical Narratives, Mass Violence, and Atrocity Prevention," chap. in Historical Dialogue and the Prevention of Mass Atrocities, Eds. Elazar Barkan, Constantin Goschler, and James Waller. Routledge, 2020.
• "Memory Work" (Colgate Research Profile, April 2020).
• "Impossible History? Holocaust Commissions as Narrators of Trauma," Yod: Revue des études hébraïques et juives 21 (2018): 1-12.
• "Trump, Holocaust Remembrance, and Alternative Facts," The Huffington Post. January 31, 2017.
• Amending the Past: Europe's Holocaust Commissions and the Right to History, University of Wisconsin Press, 2015.
• "Toward a Philosophy of Holocaust Education: Teaching Values Without Imposing Agendas," The History Teacher 45, no. 2 (2012): 221-40.
• Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation (Edited with Elazar Barkan), Stanford University Press, 2006.
• "Depolarizing the Past: The Role of Historical Commissions in Conflict Mediation and Reconciliation," Journal of International Affairs, vol. 60, no. 1 (2006): 31-50.