About

Michael Rothberg is Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and the 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies at UCLA. He is also co-organizer of the Working Group in Memory Studies and an affiliate of the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. His research focuses on culture, politics, Holocaust, genocide, memory, trauma, literature, university, and academy.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Mathematics
• Library science
• Epistemology
• Genetics
• Philosophy
• Law
• Psychoanalysis
• Social psychology
• Biology
• Computational biology
• Criminology

Selected publications

• Molecular dynamics simulation of shock compression in polyisobutylene: Effect of chain orientation

  Physical Review Materials · 2025-08-12

  article

  The main objective of this work was to investigate how the orientation of polyisobutylene (PIB), employed in this study as a model system, affected shockwave behavior and, in particular, the kinematic ${U}_{s}\ensuremath{-}{U}_{p}$ hugoniot using MD simulations. There is a gap in knowledge on how the orientation of polymer chains in the shock direction influences the shockwave propagation and the state of shock compression behind the shockwave front. To achieve this objective, a fully equilibrated cubic amorphous cell (AC) consisting of 131 randomly oriented PIB chains with 60 repeat units was created first and used to simulate the ${U}_{s}\ensuremath{-}{U}_{p}$ hugoniot in unoriented control using the equilibrium MD multiscale shock technique (MSST), which a priori assumes that the Rankine-Hugoniot (RH) jump conditions are satisfied. Then, the cubic AC was stretched to form a long square prism. The stretching resulted in a strong orientation of the polymer chains along the long axis of the prism. After equilibration, this elongated AC was used to generate shockwaves at different piston velocities, ${U}_{p}$, by the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) method and to measure the corresponding shockwave velocities, ${U}_{s}$, and directly calculate the ${U}_{s}\ensuremath{-}{U}_{p}$ dependence. To ensure accurate calculation of the shockwave velocity ${U}_{s}$, a machine learning (ML) algorithm was used to automate and optimize multiple curve fittings of the shockwave profiles for various times. This protocol allowed unprecedentedly accurate measurements of the ${U}_{s}\ensuremath{-}{U}_{p}$ relationship for the oriented PIB system. It was shown that the ${U}_{s}\ensuremath{-}{U}_{p}$ shock hugoniots simulated for unoriented and oriented PIB systems overlapped perfectly in the range above 5 km/s but diverged noticeably more and more at lower ${U}_{p}$ values (1--5 km/s), with the ${U}_{s}$ values for the oriented system being larger for the same ${U}_{p}$. The rationale for this difference is discussed, including whether the RH conditions are satisfied for the oriented PIB system. This study also reports on the anisotropy of normal stresses (pressures) along the AC axes in the oriented system, the density behavior, and the behavior of intramolecular (angular, bond, dihedral) and intermolecular (pairwise) contributions to the total potential energy in oriented PIB behind a shock front in a compressed state.

  PublisherDOI

• Conflict and Comparison

  2025-11-23

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This chapter traces how an emerging Holocaust studies in the English-speaking world has intersected with the development of memory studies since the late 1980s. In their work of the 1990s, Holocaust scholars drew attention to the importance of trauma and testimony, transgenerational transmission, and the politics of commemoration—three areas that have been central to contemporary memory studies. In the 2000s, new work in Holocaust studies focused on global and transnational memory and on political crises occasioned by the rise of the far right and the violence in Israel/Palestine. Against this backdrop, the chapter turns to memory conflict and introduces the “multidirectional memory” framework developed in 2009. In the final section, the chapter considers the intersection of memory studies scholarship with public, political debates by way of the example of the Historikerstreit 2.0, a 2020–21 dispute about Germany memory culture.

  PublisherDOI

• The Holocaust and the Challenges of Representation

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-05-16 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 190191Lived multidirectionality: <i>Historikerstreit 2.0</i> and the politics of Holocaust memory

  2025-08-15

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Lived multidirectionality: Historikerstreit 2.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dynamics of Remembrance and Implication in the Aftermath of July 22

  Palgrave Macmillan memory studies · 2025-01-01

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Multidirectional Memory and the Agency of the Aesthetic

  2024-11-18

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Supplementary Figure S2 from Selective Modulation of a Pan-Essential Protein as a Therapeutic Strategy in Cancer

  2023-04-03

  preprintOpen access

  &lt;p&gt;NXT1 is a selective and lethal dependency in neuroblastoma&lt;/p&gt;

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Supplementary Figure S2 from Selective Modulation of a Pan-Essential Protein as a Therapeutic Strategy in Cancer

  2023-04-03

  preprintOpen access

  &lt;p&gt;NXT1 is a selective and lethal dependency in neuroblastoma&lt;/p&gt;

  PublisherDOI

• The Perversion of Holocaust Memory: Writing and Rewriting the Past after 1989 By Judith M. Hughes. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. Pp. 160. Hardcover $115.00. ISBN: 978-1350281875.

  Central European History · 2023-09-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The Perversion of Holocaust Memory: Writing and Rewriting the Past after 1989 By Judith M. Hughes. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. Pp. 160. Hardcover $115.00. ISBN: 978-1350281875. - Volume 56 Issue 3

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary Table S1 from Selective Modulation of a Pan-Essential Protein as a Therapeutic Strategy in Cancer

  2023-04-03

  supplementary-materialsOpen access

  &lt;p&gt;CRISPR guide sequences&lt;/p&gt;

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Todd R. Golub

  Broad Institute

  38 shared

• Brenton R. Paolella

  32 shared

• Francisca Vázquez

  31 shared

• Kimberly Stegmaier

  Harvard University

  28 shared

• Neekesh V. Dharia

  27 shared

• David E. Root

  Broad Institute

  26 shared

• Nancy Dumont

  24 shared

• Mai Abdusamad

  23 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Harvard University

  2017

Awards & honors

• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship