The Chair of Excellence “Holocaust and Genocide Studies” was established in September 2024 at the University of Caen Normandy. It is part of the CaeSAR Future Investment Program (PIA). This is the first Chair of Excellence in France dedicated to the Holocaust and genocidal enterprises. With a three-year duration, its mission is to foster cutting-edge research and to promote this research at both the national and international levels.

The Chair focuses on “Lived Spaces and Representations of Space in the Holocaust and Mass Violences”, with particular expertise on the occupied Soviet Union (1941–1944). It is part of an international research dynamic on the geography of the Holocaust, especially in the territories of Eastern Europe.