 |
 |
Teaching about the Holocaust through Eye-Witness Testimony:
Using Interviews and Memoirs in the Classroom January 3-7, 2011
|
The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is pleased to announce the 2011 Jack and Anita Hess Seminar for Faculty. The seminar will focus on new opportunities and methodologies for integrating survivor and eyewitness testimony in college and university courses on the Holocaust. Rapid advances in online technology are allowing collections of audio/video interviews and memoirs to become widely available to faculty and students on university campuses throughout North America. Faculty face significant challenges regarding how best to integrate these collections into their teaching. This seminar will explore the challenges associated with teaching first-person accounts in the classroom and the methods and strategies for their successful incorporation into university-level courses. In addition, testimony sources will be analyzed within the context of both Holocaust source materials in general and the complex issues surrounding memory and factuality of such sources.
The Seminar is scheduled to be held at the Museum on January 3-7, 2011 and is designed for professors who are teaching or preparing to teach Holocaust or Holocaust-related courses. The Seminar will be co-led by Dr. Henry Greenspan, Consulting Psychologist, Lecturer IV, and Faculty Scholar in Social Theory and Practice, Residential College, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; and Dr. Wendy Lower, Lecturer in the Department of Eastern European History at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.
The Seminar will consist of presentations and discussions about the Holocaust, focusing on the varied collections of newly available eyewitness accounts. Daily sessions will assess the insights gained from eye-witnesses' experiences and explore the teaching possibilities and challenges associated with using this rich repository. Participants will also be introduced to the Museum's vast array of oral-testimony holdings, including the Museum's own considerable 9,000 video-taped oral histories, post-war memoirs, and rare book collections; the USC Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive; the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies; the Yahad-in Unum Collection at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; and the David Boder Oral History Interviews of Displaced Persons. Additional pedagogical sessions will include participant-facilitated discussions of classroom teaching methods and roundtable discussions of teaching strategies across multiple disciplines. Participants will also receive orientations regarding the Museum's significant library, archival, film, and photograph holdings.
Dr. Henry Greenspan is Clinical Psychologist, Lecturer IV, and Faculty Scholar at the University of Michigan, who has been writing and teaching about Holocaust survivors for more than thirty years. Rather than relying on one-time interviews, his approach centers on deepening conversation with the same survivors over many years. His most recent books are the second, expanded edition of the highly regarded On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Beyond Testimony and, with Agi Rubin, Reflections: Auschwitz, Memory, and a Life Recreated. Based on decades of conducting eye-witness interviews, his widely acclaimed play, Remnants, centers on Holocaust survivors' reflections and demonstrates that dramatization of testimony engenders reflection and deeper understanding among students and other audiences. Dr. Wendy Lower is Research Fellow and Lecturer at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich. Her publications include Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine and The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony and Memorialization (coedited), both of which were published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Dr. Lower was formerly Director of Visiting Scholar Programs at the Museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and Assistant Professor in the History Department of Towson University. She is currently writing a book on female perpetrators in Ukraine and Poland and recently completed preparation of an annotated edition of the Holocaust diary of Samek Golfard, which will be one of the testimony case-studies explored during the seminar.
Candidates must be faculty members of accredited, baccalaureate-awarding institutions in North America. Applications must include a curriculum vitae, a short statement of the candidate's specific interest in and need to attend the Seminar, and a supporting letter from a departmental chair or dean detailing the Holocaust-related courses that the candidate is teaching or planning and the support that the university is providing for Holocaust studies at the institution. If the applicant has already taught an applicable course, a syllabus should be included.
Admission will be decided without regard to the age, gender, race, creed, or national origin of the candidate. A maximum of 20 applicants will be accepted. For non-local participants, the Center will defray the cost of (1) direct travel to and from the participant's home institution and Washington, DC, and (2) lodging for the duration of the Seminar. Incidentals, meals, and book expenses must be defrayed by the candidates or their respective institutions. All participants must attend the entire Seminar.
Applications must be postmarked or received in electronic form no later than Monday, November 15, 2010 and sent to:
University Programs
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2150
Fax: (202) 479-9726
Email: university_programs@ushmm.org
For questions, contact Dr. Dieter Kuntz at 202-314-1779 or dkuntz@ushmm.org. Accepted applicants will be notified of the results of the selection process by Monday, November 29, 2010.
This Seminar is endowed by Edward and David Hess in memory of their parents, Jack and Anita Hess, who believed passionately in the power of education to overcome racial and religious prejudice.
|
Didn't find what you're looking for?
Try our power search! |
Return to the top of this page
Return to announcements home
|
Send comments and questions to H-Net
Webstaff. H-Net reproduces announcements that have been submitted to us as a
free service to the academic community. If you are interested in an announcement
listed here, please contact the organizers or patrons directly. Though we strive
to provide accurate information, H-Net cannot accept responsibility for the text of
announcements appearing in this service. (Administration)
|
|
