Research

My research interests include: the politics of history, historical justice, historical reconciliation, historical commissions, museums and memory, historical monuments, historical anniversaries, memory holes, and memory trolls. See below for a partial list of published works.

I. Monographs and Edited Volumes

Amending the Past: Europe’s Holocaust Commissions and the Right to History. University of Wisconsin Press, 2015.

Taking Wrongs Serious: Apologies and Reconciliation (co-edited with Elazar Barkan). Stanford University Press, 2006.

II. Articles and Book Chapters

Karn, Alexander. “Political Apologies for Historical Injustices: Engaging with Questions of Power, Utility, and Impact.” Global Studies Quarterly 2, no. 4 (2022): 1-10.

Karn, Alexander. “Museums and Memorials as Sites of Dialogue: Historical Narratives, Mass Violence, and Atrocity Prevention.” In Historical Dialogue and the Prevention of Mass Atrocities, eds. Elazar Barkan, Constantin Goschler, and James Waller. London and New York: Routledge, 2020.

Karn, Alexander. “Impossible History? Holocaust Commissions as Narrators of Trauma.” Yod: Revue des études hébraïques et juives 21 (2018): 1-12.

Karn, Alexander. “Switzerland’s Independent Commission of Experts: State-Sponsored History and the Challenges of Political Partisanship.” In The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1995, eds. Berber Bevernage and Nico Wouters. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2018.

Karn, Alexander. “Historical Commissions and Educational Outreach: Challenges and Lessons for Transitional Justice.” In Transitional Justice and Education: Learning Peace, eds. Roger Duthie and Clara Ramírez-Barat. New York: Social Science Research Council, 2016.

Karn, Alexander. “Toward a Philosophy of Holocaust Education: Teaching Values without Imposing Agendas.” The History Teacher 45, no. 2 (2012): 221-240.

Karn, Alexander. “Amnesty International and the Death Penalty: Toward Global Abolition.” In Invitation to an Execution, ed. Gordon M. Bakken, pps. 115-135. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2010.

Karn, Alexander. “Depolarizing the Past: The Role of Historical Commissions in Conflict Mediation and Reconciliation.” Journal of International Affairs 60, no. 1 (2006): 31-50.

Barkan, Elazar and Alexander Karn. “Group Apology as an Ethical Imperative.” In Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation, eds. Elazar Barkan and Alexander Karn, pps. 3-30. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2006.

III. Book Reviews

Karn, Alexander. Review of Lifting the Shadow: Reshaping Memory, Race, and Slavery in U.S. Museums, by Amy Sodaro. Dialogues on Historical Justice and Memory (2025).

Karn, Alexander. “Review Symposium,” invited review of The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism, Yifat Gutman and Jenny Wüstenberg, eds. Memory Studies 17, no. 5 (October 2024): 1231-34.

Karn, Alexander. Review of Crimes Against History, by Antoon De Baets. International Network for Theory of History (2020).

Karn, Alexander. Review of Memory and Complicity: Migrations of Holocaust Remembrance, by Debarati Sanyal. Dialogues on Historical Justice and Memory (2016).

Karn, Alexander. Review of Transitional Justice in Established Democracies: A Political Theory, by Stephen Winter. Dialogues on Historical Justice and Memory (2015).

Karn, Alexander. Review of The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria, by David Art. Austrian History Yearbook 42 (2011): 219-220.

Karn, Alexander. Review of The Price of Racial Reconciliation, by Ronald W. Walters. Law and History Review 28, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 45-46.

Karn, Alexander. Review of The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History, by Kass Fleisher. Law and History Review 26, no. 2 (Summer 2008): 455-56.

Karn, Alexander. Review of Shattered Voices: Language, Violence, and the Work of Truth Commissions, by Teresa Godwin Phelps. Law and History Review 25, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 456-58.