The Jason D. Kogan Faculty Research Fund in Jewish Studies was generously established to support and promote excellence in Jewish Studies research at Penn State. It is awarded to one faculty member in the Jewish Studies Program on a biennial basis to help fund research leading to a tangible outcome.
We asked Jason Kogan to explain why he decided to establish this fund:
“My Jewish faith as well as the cultural importance of Judaism influenced my decision to create the Jason D. Kogan Faculty Research Fund in Jewish Studies. I believe that the growing interest in Jewish studies expands the need for scholarly research and funds to support this research. My fund is intended to enrich the Jewish Studies Program by providing such research funding to faculty in the program.”
This year, the Kogan Fund was awarded to Dr. Ran Zwigenberg (Professor of Asian Studies, History, and Jewish Studies) for his new project, Ashes. In his own words:
“From 1945 onward, objects originating from the extermination camps in Europe circulated around the globe through a developing network of museums, memorials, and commemoration sites. Among those objects were urns with incinerated remains of Holocaust victims. Polish camp museums have sent hundreds of urns all around Poland and globally, building a secular network of pilgrimage sites with its own ‘relics’ and altars in schools, museums, and memorials. Ashes maps and traces the circulation of urns in Poland, the USA, Japan, Israel, and other countries and examines the use of victims’ ashes both as a globalized ‘commemorative idiom’ and as a localized phenomenon within each site’s own history of war and relationship to human remains.”
Congratulation to Ran Zwigenberg on receiving this award and our sincerest gratitude to Jason Kogan for establishing this fund and for his contributions to the Jewish Studies Program at Penn State!