Skip to College News & Media site navigationSkip to main content

Author to Speak at Ramapo College on Role of Ridgewood Native Varian Fry Saving Artists From Nazi Oppression

(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)September 7, 2010

(MAHWAH, NJ) – Rosemary Sullivan, a prolific Canadian writer and researcher, will speak at Ramapo College of New Jersey in September under the auspices of the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Sullivan will give a talk about “Lives on the Line: Varian Fry and the Artists He Saved at the Villa Air-Bel.”

It is being held in conjunction with the hosting of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition, Varian Fry, Assignment: Rescue, 1940-1941. It will be on display from September 1 to October 8 in the Pascal Gallery, Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts. The exhibition is sponsored by Ramapo College’s Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in cooperation with the Berrie Center Art Galleries and the Committee to Honor Varian Fry (Ridgewood). The exhibition and all events associated with it are free and open to the public.

Rosemary Sullivan is a full professor at the University of Toronto where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Biography and Creative Non-Fiction and is director and founder of the MA Program in English in the Field of Creative Writing. In 2008, she was awarded the Lorne Pierce Medal by the Royal Society of Canada for distinguished contributions to Canadian literature and culture. Currently, she is a Fellow of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation of Toronto.

Her recent book, Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape and a House in Marseille, was published by HarperCollins in Canada and the U.S., John Murray in England, Debate in Spain, Mladá fronta in the Czech Republic, Rocco Press in Brazil,  and Edizioni dell’Altana in Italy. It won the Canadian Jewish Book Awards Yad Vashem Prize in Holocaust History/ Scholarship and the Different Drummer Independent Booksellers’ Award. Sullivan is the author of twelve books including The Guthrie Road (2009); Labyrinth of Desire: Women, Passion, and Romantic Obsession (2001) published in Canada, the U.S., England, Spain, and Latin America; and the national best seller The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out (1998). She is also the editor of eight anthologies, including, Stories by Canadian Women, and Short Fiction for Oxford University Press. She has lectured and undertaken book tours across Canada and the US, England, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, India, Puerto Rico, Chile, and Mexico. She is the recipient of Guggenheim, Killam, Camargo, and Jackman Humanities Fellowships, and has been awarded a number of creative residencies, including in Karnataka, India; Cassis, France; and Mexico City.

A Montrealer by birth, Rosemary Sullivan received her B.A. from McGill University, her M.A. from the University of Connecticut, and her PhD from the University of Sussex.

Sullivan will speak on Monday, September 27 at 7:15 p.m. in the York Room of the Birch Mansion. The presentation is free and open to the public.  For more information or to reserve a seat, please call 201.684.7409.

###

About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

Ramapo

Press Release Archives

| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 |

Ramapo