"Primo Levi and Poetry: Teaching Survival, in Auschwitz and Beyond" Antonello Borra, Faculty Fellow in Holocaust Studies, University of Vermont.

Primo Levi's Se questo è un uomo / If This is a Man, also known as Survival in Auschwitz, is an essential book, read worldwide and adopted for university courses on both literature and history. Levi's poems, on the other hand, are less known to the general public. This presentation will concentrate on Primo Levi's poetical production, from his earliest published texts to those he wrote before his tragic death in 1987. Levi's engagement with and attitude toward poetry documented in his work is a powerful testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.

Antonello Borra is Professor of Italian in the School of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Vermont. He is a poet, translator, and scholar with extensive publications on both medieval and contemporary Italian poetry. He regularly teaches courses on the Holocaust in Italian literature and film, is the recipient of an Altschuler Course Development Grant in Holocaust Studies from UVM's Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies, and is the Miller Center's 2025 Faculty Fellow in Holocaust Studies.