AmCon 2024 Speakers
Dr Emily Smith
Education Officer, Holocaust Educational Trust
Dr Emily Smith is an Education Officer for the Holocaust Educational Trust, working primarily on the Lessons from Auschwitz Project. Dr Smith holds an MA and PhD in Holocaust and Refugee Studies from the Holocaust Research Institute, Royal Holloway, University of London. She specialises in Jewish migration history within the UK, with a particular focus on microhistories of the Holocaust including Jewish refugees who settled in South Wales during the Second World War. Dr Smith is passionate about using testimony and storytelling to explore Holocaust narratives and encouraging the public to explore local links to the Holocaust and refugee communities.
Martin Winstone
Senior Historical Advisor, Holocaust Educational Trust
Martin Winstone is Senior Historical Advisor to the Holocaust Educational Trust and Project Historian for the UK Holocaust Memorial. He is the author of The Holocaust Sites of Europe (3rd edition, 2024) and The Dark Heart of Hitler’s Europe: Nazi Rule in Poland under the General Government (2014). He is also a member of the UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and is the current chair of IHRA’s Education Working Group. Martin has frequently appeared as an expert commentator on the Holocaust on television and radio and in the press.
Charlie Wranosky-Mills
Education Officer, Holocaust Educational Trust
Charlie Wranosky-Mills is an Education Officer on the Teacher Training team at the Holocaust Educational Trust. Having completed a PGCE in Secondary English at University College London’s Institute of Education, Charlie has taught in a variety of secondary schools across Hertfordshire, North London, and Kent for the past seven years. He studied for an MA in Holocaust Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. Having previously read Literature and History at the University of East Anglia, his specialisms blend these two disciplines as he is particularly interested in the representation of the Holocaust in literature, film, and theatre. He has also explored connections between football, the Holocaust and antisemitism.
Dr Imogen Dalziel
Education Officer, Holocaust Educational Trust
Dr Imogen Dalziel is a part-time Education Officer for the Holocaust Educational Trust; she is also currently writing a book on the Holocaust as experienced by two families from Germany. Dr Dalziel has previously worked for the UK Holocaust Memorial, the Holocaust and Genocide Research Partnership and the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London. She was awarded her PhD from Royal Holloway in 2020. She sits as a Professional on the Board of the British and Irish Association for Holocaust Studies and also volunteers with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum; her efforts for the latter were recognised with an If Not For Those Ten… award in 2016. Dr Dalziel was a participant on the Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project in 2009 and was in the first cohort of Regional Ambassadors.
Gabriella Burton
Education Officer, Holocaust Educational Trust
Gabriella Burton is an Education Officer for the Holocaust Educational Trust. She writes and designs resources for Ambassador events and study visits, the Lessons from Auschwitz Project and other new and exciting programmes. Gabriella holds a BA in History with English from Keele University and a Secondary History PGCE. She has a wealth of classroom experience as a former Teacher of History, Trainee Teacher Mentor and Teaching and Learning Lead. Gabriella is passionate about making Holocaust education accessible and engaging for young people from all backgrounds.
Dr Jonny Hudson
Education Officer, Holocaust Educational Trust
With a rich background in teaching History and English across five countries, Dr Hudson brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his workshops. His expertise in Holocaust education is particularly notable for his impactful work in England and Japan, where he not only taught the subject but also organised and led survivor talks and educational trips to Holocaust sites in Germany and Poland. Dr Hudson completed his master's degree in Holocaust Education in 2019, which laid the groundwork for his doctoral research focused on the complex narratives of Holocaust perpetrators. His research contributes significantly to the field, illuminating the darker facets of the human condition and promoting a deeper understanding of the Holocaust.
Dr Alasdair Richardson
Reader in Education, University of Winchester
Dr Alasdair Richardson is a Reader in Education in the Institute of Education, University of Winchester. He was previously a Primary and Secondary school teacher, specialising in RE and History, and held a variety of leadership roles in schools, including two Deputy Headships. Dr Richardson was awarded his Professional Doctorate in Education in 2008 and is a graduate of The International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. He now lectures at the University of Winchester, working mainly with trainee teachers. His research explores young people’s experiences at Holocaust-related sites, particularly on the Lessons from Auschwitz Project. He has been an Educator with the Holocaust Educational Trust for 11 years. Dr Richardson is also a member of the Education Consultative Group for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), a member of the Advisory Council for Holocaust Learning UK, and is a former President of the British & Irish Association for Holocaust Studies (BIAHS). He is the author of The Salesian Martyrs of Auschwitz (2021) and has published widely in peer-reviewed articles and edited volumes.
Dr Lisa Peschel
Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Chair of Research & Practice, University of York
Dr Lisa Peschel is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Chair of Research & Practice at the University of York. She holds an MFA in Playwriting and was awarded her PhD in Theatre Historiography and History from the University of Minnesota. Dr Peschel’s research focuses on theatrical performance in the Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto. Her anthology Performing Captivity, Performing Escape: Cabarets and Plays from the Terezin/Theresienstadt Ghetto was published in 2014 and a co-edited volume, Performing (for) Survival: Theatre, Crisis and Extremity, in 2015. Her articles on survivor testimony and scripts written in the ghetto have featured in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Czech, German and Israeli journals. As co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project Performing the Jewish Archive (2014-2017) and principal investigator of the follow-up project Gido’s Coming Home! Performing Music and Theatre from the Terezin/Theresienstadt Ghetto for Commemoration (2018-2019), Dr Peschel has re-staged works by Terezin prisoners both internationally and specifically in the Czech Republic.
Dr Barbara Warnock
Senior Curator and Head of Education, The Wiener Holocaust Library
Dr Barbara Warnock is the Senior Curator and Head of Education at The Wiener Holocaust Library, where she has curated exhibitions including Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust, Berlin-London: The Lost Photographs of Gerty Simon, Fighting Antisemitism from Dreyfus to Today and Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and Sinti. She is the author of Berlin-London: The Lost Photographs of Gerty Simon (2019), a Spectator Book of the Year, and several articles on Jewish refugee history and the Nazi persecution of Roma. In 2016 she was awarded her PhD in Austrian history from Birkbeck College, University of London. Dr Warnock also has 14 years of teaching experience as a history teacher and examiner.
Dr Kate Marrison
Research Fellow, Landecker Digital Memory Lab, University of Sussex
Dr Kate Marrison is a Research Fellow at the Landecker Digital Memory Lab, University of Sussex. Her research focuses on digital memory practice, education and commemoration at the intersection between Holocaust studies and media theory. She leads the Sussex Digital Holocaust Education Project within the Weidenfeld Institute of German-Jewish Studies and has recently completed work on the ESRC-funded Co-creating Recommendations for Digital Interventions in Holocaust Memory and Education and HEIF-funded Dealing with Difficult Heritage projects. Dr Marrison was awarded her PhD from the University of Leeds, where she also lectured in Film Studies. Her PhD explored the concept of digital witnessing across case studies including virtual and augmented reality projects, video games and 3-dimensional installations of Holocaust survivor testimonies. She has contributed to the edited volumes Digital Holocaust Memory, Education and Research (2021) and Visitor Experience at Holocaust Memorials and Museums (2023).
Clementine Smith
Director of Programmes and Deputy Managing Director, Holocaust Educational Trust
Clementine Smith is Director of Programmes and Deputy Managing Director at the Holocaust Educational Trust, where she has worked for over 10 years. During her time at the Trust, Clementine has led the Trust’s Ambassador Programme (including the launch of the Regional Ambassador Programme in 2013), and now oversees the strategic development and delivery of the Trust’s core programmes. In 2020, Clementine played an integral part in the team’s pivot towards online delivery for the Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project; Outreach Programme; Teacher Training offer; and youth engagement work.
Rebbetzin Ilana Epstein
Rebbetzin, Western Marble Arch Synagogue
Rebbetzin Ilana Epstein is one half of the senior rabbinic team at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue alongside her husband, Rabbi Daniel Epstein. She works within her community, giving weekly lectures in Bible Studies and Art History/Culture within Judaism, and provides pastoral care primarily to women in the community. She is an educator on the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project. She recently created educational website content to accompany SKY Atlantic’s recent adaptation of The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Having studied at Yeshiva University Stern College, Rebbetzin Epstein brings over 25 years of experience, passion and excitement about diverse approaches to Jewish history, culture and tradition. She was selected for the inaugural cohort of the prestigious Rabbi Sacks Scholars programme.