On March 4, Birmingham-Southern College will welcome Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, to campus. The Birmingham Jewish Foundation is sponsoring the speaking event, which will be held at 7 p.m. in the Munger Hall Auditorium.

“Dr. Lipstadt is a compelling speaker and we are thrilled she will be coming to Birmingham for a lecture,” says Sally Friedman, executive director of the Birmingham Jewish Foundation. “We are seeing an alarming rise in antisemitism today in both this country and throughout the world, so Dr. Lipstadt’s appearance and her award-winning book ‘Antisemitism: Here and Now,’ are, sadly, particularly timely.”

Lipstadt is considered one of the country’s leading scholars on the Holocaust and antisemitism and often examines these topics within American culture. She has authored six books and numerous articles, and she is often known for winning the lawsuit brought against her in 1996 by David Irving, an English author and Holocaust denier.

Irving sued Lipstadt for libel because she accused him of Holocaust denial in her book “Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory.” Lipstadt and Penguin Books, through a historical investigation, won the case by proving that Irving indeed engaged in neo-Nazi discourse and distorted facts about the Holocaust, including the evidence of the Auschwitz gas chambers.

After the ten-week trial in London concluded, the impact was felt around the world. The Times claimed that “history has had its day in court and scored a crushing victory.” Lipstadt wrote about the case in her 2005 book, “History on Trial,” which inspired the film “Denial,” starring Rachel Weisz as Lipstadt.

“I describe the kind of Holocaust denial we had to fight as hardcore denial. In terms of the Western world, what you have more of now is what I call softcore denial. Not denial of the facts, but someone saying, ‘I’m so tired of hearing about the Holocaust,’” said Lipstadt in a 2016 Washington Post interview.

Her most recent book, “Antisemitism: Here and Now,” was published last year. It’s comprised of letters between a college student and a law school professor, which raise questions about antisemitism based on what she’s been asked in her career.

Alongside her published work and teaching career, Lipstadt has served in many important roles regarding Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism. She was a historical consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and helped design the section dedicated to the American response to the Holocaust.

Lipstadt also directs Emory’s Holocaust Denial on Trial archive, which holds the proceedings of “Irving v. Penguin UK and Deborah Lipstadt” as well as answers to frequent claims made by deniers. She has been appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and was asked by President George W. Bush to represent the White House at the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Hear Lipstadt speak about her first research on Holocaust deniers and the Irving trial in her TED Talk. The speaking event at BSC is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register, visit www.bjf.org. For more information, call the Birmingham Jewish Foundation at (205) 879-0416.