Author Dorothy Kaufmann will discuss her research on French writer Édith Thomas, who worked to counteract Nazi propaganda during World War II, at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at the University of Rochester.
Her talk, titled "Writing and Resistance: Uncovering a Woman's Life," will be held in the Hyam Plutzik Library of Contemporary Writing, which is located on the second floor of Rush Rhees Library in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections on the University's River Campus. It is free and open to the public.
Kaufmann, who is professor emerita of French at Clark University and an alumna of the University of Rochester, has written and edited other volumes about literary figures during 20th-century France. For this biography of Édith Thomas (1909-1970), Kaufmann focused on the only woman in the Paris network of Resistance writers who met clandestinely to undermine Nazi occupation and the Vichy regime. Kaufmann used much material that Thomas hid during her lifetime for Édith Thomas: A Passion for Resistance (Cornell University Press, 2004).
Kaufmann received a bachelor's degree from Rochester, a master's degree from New York University, and a doctorate from Columbia University. She has taught at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., since 1975. Her talk is co-sponsored by River Campus Libraries and the Department of History.
Her lecture is offered in conjunction with Meliora Weekend, the annual celebration for alumni, parents, students, and the public on the River Campus. For more information on the Kaufmann talk, contact (585) 275-4461.