Dr. Lawrence Baron, Nasatir Professor of Modern Jewish History, and director of the Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies at San Diego State University, will visit MSU to offer an afternoon Brownbag Seminar and also deliver the Kessler Lecture on Jewish Film and Media on Thursday, October 27.

Dr. Baron will speak on “Projecting Prejudice: Cinematic Depictions of American Anti-Semitism in the Postwar” at a brownbag seminar at 12:00–1:30 pm in 321 Linton Hall.

In the evening, he will deliver the Kessler Lecture on Jewish Film and Media. “Serious Humor: The Holocaust in Film Comedies” will survey the use of humor in feature films about the Holocaust from Charlie Chaplain's The Great Dictator, The Producers, and Seven Beauties to recent films like Genghis Cohn, Life Is Beautiful, and Train of Life. The lecture will take place in the MSU Main Library’s Room W449 (West Wing, North Conference Room) at 7:00 pm.

Professor Baron’s book, Projecting the Holocaust into the Present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema, has recently been published. Baron is president of the Western Jewish Historical Association, a member of the board of the Association of Jewish Studies, and has lectured extensively at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and numerous universities and conferences.