Miss Chloe Rixon MA, MPhil

PhD student

Cultural geographer interested in questions of memory and researching the relationship between cinema, contemporary Holocaust memory and landscape.

Biography

Career

• 2020-present: PhD in Geography, University of Cambridge
• 2018-2019: MPhil in Geographical Research, University of Cambridge
• 2015-2018: BA in Geography, University of Cambridge

Qualifications

• MPhil in Geographical Research, University of Cambridge
• MA in Geography, University of Cambridge (Double First Class)

Awards

• AHRC DTP PhD studentship (2020-2024)
• St Catharine’s College Travel and Research Grant, St Catharine’s College (2019)
• William Vaughan Lewis Dissertation Prize, Department of Geography (2018)
• Rosemary Murray Scholarship, Murray Edwards College (2017, 2018)
• David Richards Travel Scholarship, Department of Geography (2017)
• Rosemary Murray Travel Award, Murray Edwards College (2017)
• Bedford Travel Grant, Department of Geography (2017)

Research

My PhD research broadly considers interactions between visual technologies, memory and space, focusing in particular on the relationships between cinema, Holocaust memory and deathscapes in Kraków, Poland. Its aim is to examine what the spatial mediation of Holocaust memory by visual technologies indicates about the future of collective memory, commemoration and education in a post-witness world.

Theoretically, this research is grounded in the interdisciplinary field of Memory Studies, bringing together work on prosthetic memory, haunting, media studies and landscape. Methodologically, I propose an approach I call ‘memory-work’, combining archival and ethnographic methods with a practical engagement in local memory activism. This is facilitated by my project’s collaboration with two institutional partners: the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland, and the British Film Institute.

Broader research interests include: the digital humanities; genocide studies; Holocaust studies; spectral humanities; post-conflict; public engagement; Latin America; South Africa; Jewish studies; the Middle East; urban studies; performance studies.

Publications

Public scholarship

• Rixon, C.K. (2020) ‘Remembering International Holocaust Memorial Day’, The History Channel, https://www.history.co.uk/article/remembering-international-holocaust-memorial-day
• Rixon, C.K. (2019) ‘(Mis)representing the Jewish Holocaust for Millennials’, The History Channel, https://www.history.co.uk/article/misrepresenting-the-holocaust-to-millennials

Selected presentations and invited talks

• ‘Cinematic Imaginations of Place: from the fantastically absurd to the surprisingly useful’, Chesterton Community College Lecture Series, Cambridge, November 2022 [invited]
• ‘Memory, Cinema and Deathscapes: Re-membering the Holocaust in Poland’, Sixth-Form Enrichment Programme, St Margaret’s School, Bushey, January 2022 [invited]
• ‘Spacetimes of Covid-19: Rethinking memory in process or: How will we remember Covid-19?’, Chesterton Community College Lecture Series, Cambridge, January 2022 [invited]
• ‘Re-membering distance: the Holocaust across time and space’, ‘Across Distance’ AHRC International Conference (online), September 2021
• ‘Remembering the Holocaust and the Power of Interdisciplinarity’, Chesterton Community College Lecture Series, Cambridge (online), May 2021 [invited]
• ‘Toward Spectral Geographies: Doing Memory-work’, Tracks, Traces and Threads workshop in Vital Geographies research group, Cambridge (online), February 2021

Conferences

• Helped to organise and facilitate New Realities of Jewish Heritage: A conference marking the 10th anniversary of Jewish Heritage Europe, hosted at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland, June 26-27 2022

Workshops

• I am developing a workshop based on my research findings in collaboration with the Galicia Jewish Museum for English-speaking students and educators.

Teaching

• Assistant, Part 2 Landscape and Power – London galleries trip (Michaelmas 2023)
• Supervisor, Part 1A Cultural Geography (Easter 2023)
• Supervisor, Part 2 Urban Geography (Lent 2023, Easter 2023)
• Supervisor, Part 1B Citizenship, Cities and Civil Society (Lent 2023)
• Supervisor, Part 1A Contemporary Urban Geographies (Michaelmas 2022, Easter 2023)
• Supervisor, Part 2 Legal Geographies (Michaelmas 2022)
• Supervisor, Part 2 undergraduate dissertations (Michaelmas 2022)
• Supervisor, Undergraduate Dissertation Cafés on Ethnographic Surveys and Interviews and Discourse Analysis (Summer 2022)
• Delivered a lecture, Gonville & Caius Subject Taster Event (Geography) (Easter 2022)
• Supervisor in Geography (cultural and urban geographies), Cambridge Higher Aspirations Scheme (Dec 2021-May 2022)
• Supervisor in Geography, Gonville & Cauis Interview Preparation Day (Michaelmas 2021)
• Supervisor, Part IB Citizenship, Cities, and Civil Society (Lent 2021)

External activities

• Postgraduate Representative, Postgraduate Advisory Task and Finish Group: Strategic Review of Mental Health Provision (2022-present)
• Convener and Founder, Difficult Geographies peer-support group (2021-present)
• Intern, Galicia Jewish Museum (Oct 2021-August 2022)
• Member, Network for Collaborative and Participatory Methods (2020-present)
• Member, Filmosophy reading group (2020-2021)
• Contributing writer, The History Channel (2019-present)
• Member, Infrastructural Geographies research group (2018-present)
• President/Leader, Delight Ministries Cambridge (2016-present)
• Editor and Writer, Compass Magazine/Blog (2016-2018)
• Member, Cambridge University Geographical Society (2015-present)
• Blues athlete and College Captain, Cambridge University Athletics Club (2015-2018)