The Crisis, Disaster, and Tragedy Response Working Group (CDTRWG) 2026 Annual Meeting

 

This talk explores how individuals encounter and respond to learning about the Holocaust and other difficult histories in museums and educational spaces. Drawing on research in trauma studies and visitor experience, it examines how engagement with difficult material can lead not only to meaningful understanding, but also to distress, withdrawal, or vicarious trauma. It argues that exposure to traumatic content, if not handled with care, can be overwhelming or even harmful. At the same time, people encounter these histories through the lens of their own experiences, and that background shapes how they respond. The talk introduces the concept of vicarious resilience as a way of understanding how encounters with trauma can also foster strength and offers a framework for how we can create meaningful engagement with difficult histories without overwhelming those who encounter them.

 

Dr. Julie Golding is a Holocaust educator and museum professional whose work focuses on how people encounter and are shaped by learning about the Holocaust and other difficult histories. She is Assistant Professor and Deputy Chair of the Master’s in Holocaust Education at Touro University and a curator at the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education. A Wexner Graduate Fellow and Davidson Scholar, she earned her PhD from Yeshiva University and received the New York State Board of Regents Louis E. Yavner Citizen Award for excellence in Holocaust education. She is the author of Unseen Scars: Vicarious Trauma at Holocaust Museums, Exhibitions and Memorial Sites (Bloomsbury Academic).