Member since January 2026
Karen Lin Uslin, Ph.D., is a scholar, educator and public speaker specializing in Holocaust memory, interfaith engagement, and cultural identity. She serves as Director of Research for the Defiant Requiem Foundation and teaches Jewish Studies at Stockton University and Musicology at The Catholic University of America. She holds a Ph.D. in Musicology/Central & eastern European Studies from The Catholic University of America, with research focused on music, memory, and faith under persecution. She is Vice-President of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society and, as an adoptee, brings personal insight to genealogy and questions of identity, heritage, and belonging.
I love helping people reconnect with cultural identity — especially through memory, music, and story. Whether it's the Holocaust-era music created under persecution, or an adopted person tracing their biological heritage through genealogy, I'm passionate about how people rebuild belonging after rupture.
I often share the story of singing music connected to Holocaust memory in Catholic spaces — including at the Vatican — while also being a Roman Catholic-raised scholar who later discovered her own Eastern European biological heritage as an adopted person. That personal journey gave me a deeper understanding of why memory work maters — not only for Jewish communities, but for all communities shaped by trauma, displacement, and silence.
My career started in academia, but I was drawn to public impact: bringing Holocaust memory into cultural institutions, faith communities, and international spaces. I moved into cultural memory and interfaith engagement through Holocaust education and performance-based public history. Over time, my own identity journey as an adoptee deepened my focus: I now work at the intersection of public scholarship, cultural diplomacy, faith communities, and genealogy and legacy work.
I often share the story of singing music connected to Holocaust memory in Catholic spaces — including at the Vatican — while also being a Roman Catholic-raised scholar who later discovered her own Eastern European biological heritage as an adopted person. That personal journey gave me a deeper understanding of why memory work maters — not only for Jewish communities, but for all communities shaped by trauma, displacement, and silence.
My career started in academia, but I was drawn to public impact: bringing Holocaust memory into cultural institutions, faith communities, and international spaces. I moved into cultural memory and interfaith engagement through Holocaust education and performance-based public history. Over time, my own identity journey as an adoptee deepened my focus: I now work at the intersection of public scholarship, cultural diplomacy, faith communities, and genealogy and legacy work.
