English honor society welcomes distinguished guest

BY KEOTTA HOUSE
Cardinal Staff

Sigma Tau Delta brought Emily Budick, Ph. D. to Saint Mary’s University to speak to the Winona community about the good and bad of fictional literature of the Holocaust.

Budick is the chair of American literature and chair of the program of American studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. She spoke on how the fictional literature of the Holocaust can be a good thing, but it also can contain negative connotations about the Jewish characters that are portrayed.  Budick spoke to a crowd of at least forty students, faculty, staff and community members.

SMU English professor Erin Clark, Ph. D. was attending a seminar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where Budick had been speaking. After hearing Budick speak, she knew she had to get her to SMU.

“I teach a class for seniors on Holocaust literature and I felt it would be good to have her here,” said Clark.

This event marked the first of many presentations from the Sigma Tau Delta speaker series of the 2012-13 academic year. According to Clark, the English honor society was quite lucky to have Budick speak because the doctor is returning to Israel this fall.

Clark said, “I am grateful to Sigma Tau Delta for hosting the event, as well as to Dr. Aronson [SMU’s Vice President of Academic Affairs] for her support of what was a very well-attended event here on campus.”