Cailee Davis

BlueSky: @caileedavis.bsky.social

Thesis Title:
Metareferentiality and Transgenerational Memory in Representations of the Holocaust

Supervisor:
Prof. Zoë Waxman

Biography:

Cailee Davis is a PhD candidate at St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, and holds an MA in Holocaust Studies, with Distinction, from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research traces patterns in transgenerational memory and representations of the Holocaust across media. From 2022-2024, she was funded by the Graduate Development Scholarship in History at St. Anne’s College, and she received the Segal Fund Award for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Cailee has published articles in Film & History and Holocaust Studies, with forthcoming articles in The Journal of Holocaust Research and Horror Studies. She is currently co-editing a special edition of The Journal of Holocaust Research with Barnabas Balint (Oxford) and Niamh Hanrahan (Manchester), entitled ‘Mapping the Holocaust: Traditional and Emergent Methodologies’. She also has forthcoming chapters in edited volumes on Comics and Resistance and Imagining and Reimagining the Holocaust Museum in Literature, Art, and Film.

Cailee has completed fellowships with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure at the Jewish Museum in Prague, and the Holocaust Education Foundation at Northwestern University. Cailee also co-convened the Holocaust and Memory Seminar alongside Prof. Zoë Waxman at the University of Oxford for the 2024-2025 academic year, and she has been the co-convener of the Holocaust Studies Reading Group at Oxford since 2021. She is a member of the German History Society, which has funded many of her projects, and the Southern Jewish Historical Society. She has also been the Postgraduate Representative on the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Committee at the University of Oxford for the last three years.

Research interests: 

Holocaust Studies, Memory Studies, Visual and Media Arts, Metareference, Film Studies, Graphic Literature, Architectural and Exhibition Design of Holocaust Museums and Memorials

Publications:

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

“Ghosts that We Know: Troping the Holocaust in Horror Graphic Novels,” Horror Studies (Forthcoming, 2026).

“‘What shall the history books read': Inglourious Basterds and the Erasure of American Genocides,” Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal 54(2), 22-38 (Winter 2024).

“‘I’m Massively into Swastikas’: Jojo Rabbit as a Counter-Protest to Trump-Era Nationalist Extremism,” Holocaust Studies (August 2024). doi: 10.1080/17504902.2024.2397162

Peer-Reviewed Special Issues

Cailee Davis, Barnabas Balint, & Niamh Hanrahan, eds., ‘Mapping the Holocaust: Traditional and Emergent Methodologies’, The Journal of Holocaust Research (Forthcoming, 2025).

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

“Medial Representations of Holocaust Museums and Memorials: Spaces of Memory for the Second and Third Generation,” in Imaging and Reimagining the Holocaust Museum in Literature, Art, & Film, ed. Sue Vice, Dominic Williams, Emily-Rose Baker, and Diane Otosaka, London: Routledge (Forthcoming, 2026). 

“Female Relationships, Narrative Resilience, and Transgenerational Memory in Holocaust Graphic Narratives: A Conversation with Bernice Eisenstein and Amy Kurzweil” in Comics and Resistance, ed. Alexandra Lloyd, Berlin: De Gruyter (Forthcoming, 2025).

Peer-Reviewed Book Reviews 

Ladino on the Internet: Sepharad 4, by Carlos Yebra López, London: Routledge (2024), in Shepardic Horizons (Forthcoming, 2025). 

Institutional Blogs

“Digital Holocaust Media at the Jewish Museum in Prague,” European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Document Blog (Spring 2024).

“Reviewing ‘Antisemitism: A (((Musical)))’: What does it mean to be a ‘wandering jew’?” Doing History in Public Blog, University of Cambridge (Fall 2023).

“The Wiener Holocaust Library’s Digital Resources,” Wiener Library Blog, The Wiener Holocaust Library London (Spring 2020).

“Film Review: A Night at the Garden,” Wiener Library Blog, The Wiener Holocaust Library London (Winter 2019). 

“‘Eva.Stories’ Brings a Holocaust Diary to Instagram,” Wiener Library Blog, The Wiener Holocaust Library London (Spring 2019). 

“Crimes Uncovered: Irena Steinfeldt and translating for Claude Lanzmann,” Wiener Library Blog, The Wiener Holocaust Library London (Spring 2019). 

Conferences, Seminars, & Workshops:

Organized

Co-Convener, Holocaust Studies Reading Group, University of Oxford (2021-Present).

“Holocaust Studies: Navigating the Field, Academic Networking Event,” Imperial War Museum, London (Upcoming, Spring 2025). 

Co-Convener, Holocaust & Memory Seminar, with Zoë Waxman, University of Oxford (2024-2025).

“Mapping the Holocaust: International Workshop,” Institute of Historical Research, London (Spring 2024).

“‘So, where does a story begin?’: Female Relationships and Memory in Holocaust Graphic Narratives: A Conversation with Bernice Eisenstein and Amy Kurzweil,” Webinar, Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, University of Oxford (Spring 2024).

“The Holocaust on Screen,” Film Series, Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies, University of Oxford (2023-2024).

“Comics and/as Resistance,” The White Rose Project International Conference, Oxford Comics Network (Summer 2023).

“Intersections in Holocaust Memory: Workshop,” Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies, University of Oxford (Spring 2023).

“Rethinking Resistance,” The White Rose Project International Conference, University of Oxford (Spring 2022).

“Dissertation Writing Workshop for Mature Students,” Royal Holloway, University of London (Spring 2019). 

Presented 

“Decentering the Holocaust: Emergent Memorial and Museological Practices,” Collecting the Holocaust: Ethics, Memory, and Materiality Conference (Upcoming, Fall 2025). 

“Working Through It: Transgenerational Memory and Marginalized Voices of the Holocaust,” Lessons & Legacies Emerging Scholars Conference, HEFNU (Upcoming, Fall 2025). 

“New Orleans: Tradition, Resilience, and Reinvention,” 2025 Southern Jewish Historical Society Annual Conference (Upcoming, Summer 2025). 

“Voices, Past and Present: Generational Patterns in Holocaust Memory and Representation,” Holocaust & Memory Seminar, University of Oxford (Spring 2025).

“‘Holocaust Museums in Traditional and Graphic Literature: Museums as Spaces of Memory for the 2nd and 3rd Generation,” Holocaust Centre North (Winter 2024).

“‘The Holocaust and…’: Decentralizing the Holocaust in Non-Western Museum Culture,” Annual Conference, British and Irish Association of Holocaust Studies (Summer 2024).

“Medial Archives: Tracking Trends in Holocaust Memory through Medial Representations,” Archives Workshop, University of Manchester (Winter 2024).

“‘But whose memory is it anyway?’: The Global Holocaust Consciousness,” Emerging Scholars Colloquium, National World War II Museum, USA (Fall 2023).

“Mediations on Memory: The Global Holocaust Consciousness,” Postgraduate Conference, British Association for Holocaust Studies (Spring 2023).

“From Video Testimony to Social Media: Digital Spaces as the Next Medium for Holocaust Memory,” The 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies (Summer 2022). 

“‘I’m Massively into Swastikas’: Jojo Rabbit, Shitler, and the New Holocaust Comedy,” Postgraduate Conference, British Association for Holocaust Studies (Spring 2022). 

“Metareferentiality, Trauma Theory, and Transgenerational Memory in Holocaust Representations in the 21st Century,” Workshop on New Directions in Holocaust Studies, Holocaust Research Institute London (Fall 2021).

“Inglourious Basterds: Rewriting American History,” Masters Dissertation, Royal Holloway, University of London (Fall 2019). 

“Problems of Proof: Photography and Memory in Rachel Seiffert’s The Dark Room,” Workshop on the Works of Rachel Seiffert, Holocaust Research Institute London (Spring 2019).

“Laurent Binet's HHhH: Historiographic Metafiction in Contemporary French Literature About WWII,” Undergraduate Dissertation, Columbus State University (Defended Spring 2017).

Invited 

Panelist, “Diamonds of the Night (1964), Screening + Discussion,” Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, University of Cambridge (Winter 2025).

Chair, “Animals and the Holocaust: Workshop,” University of Oxford (Spring 2024).

Guest Speaker, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories,” Oxford City Council, Holocaust Memorial Day (Winter 2023).

Panelist, “Representations of the Holocaust in Film,” Holocaust Memorial Day, UK Trust (Winter 2023).

Participant, Louisiana in World War II Teacher Workshop, U.S. National WWII Museum (Fall 2017).

Participant, Echoes & Reflections on Elie Wiesel's Night: Teaching Holocaust Literature, Anti-Defamation League (Fall 2017).

Panelist, “Theologians Under Hitler,” Yom HaShoah Observance Program, Temple Israel Synagogue, Columbus, GA (Spring 2017).