Graduate Student Bios

Olivia Perez is a first year Ph.D. student studying Modern European history, the Holocaust and Jewish history. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Lithuanian Nationalism, antisemitism, and the Holocaust in Lithuania. Olivia examined the Lietukis Garage Massacre and the subsequent Kaunas pogrom in 1941 as part of the larger narrative of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Olivia earned her bachelor’s degree in history at Hastings College (NE). From 2022-2024, she completed her master’s in history with a post baccalaureate certificate in museum studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She holds the Steven Spielberg Fellowship for Jewish Studies and the Memory of the Shoah.