César Abraham Castañeda Valencia (Poland/Spain), Erasmun Mundus Master student, Adam Mickiewicz University and Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, “Analysis of Cultural Narratives related to Holocaust and Genocide”

The research project “Analysis of Cultural Narratives related to Holocaust and Genocide” aims to analyze and compare literature and artistic expression of the Holocaust which might bring light to the post-modern global construction of collective memory by literature and art. César Abraham Castañeda Valencia Is currently participating in the 2013-2015 Erasmus Mundus Master Crosways in Cultural Narratives program, currently at Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland) and previously in Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (Spain).

César Abraham selected the Adam Mickiewicz University motivated by the Holocaust & trauma studies, in particular subjects such as "The unspeakable in the literature of camps and Literary figurations of Civil War and concentration camps in Spanish contemporary texts", which provide an accurate analysis about literature as testimony of last century's systematic oppression and extermination, which might bring to light a taboo and polemics about institutions, societies and individuals.

During his research at JMP, Cesar Abraham was able to find several writing works to analyze and translations of poetry, theatre and songs composed by Pavel Haas, Hans Krása, Martin Roman, Erwin Schulhoff, Adolf Strauss, Karel Svenk, Carlo Sigmund Taube and his wife Erika, Ilse Weber and Viktor Ullmann. Therefore, the hypothesis is that these artistic testimonies bring audiences’ minds to empathy and should be required as complimentary to education and common knowledge as testimonies providers of the aesthetic experience of the events.

Cesar Abraham holds a Master in International Communications at Macquarie University (Australia) and a Bachelor degree in Linguistics and Hispanic Literature at BUAP (Mexico). In 2006, he was awarded by the Mexican Ministry of Education SEP, IDP Australia and IELST Australia as Student of the Year Award; in 2009, he received the Mexico Orange Tulip Scholarship to Groningen University (Netherlands); in 2011, Macquarie University and Dunmore Lang College (Australia) Postgraduate Award and recently, CONACYT and Erasmus Mundus Scholarship Awards.