JUNE 6-17
Applications due March 21
The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum announces the 2011 Silberman Seminar for college/university faculty from all disciplines who are teaching or preparing to teach Holocaust or Holocaust-related courses. This year’s seminar will deepen participants’ understanding of how the Holocaust occurred; analyze the complex interactions among perpetrators, victims, and bystanders; explore problems of representation and memory; and equip faculty with the knowledge base and pedagogical techniques required to teach this complex topic and to address the questions that arise most frequently in the classroom. The seminar is designed to model and encourage approaches that integrate a wide range of disciplines, sources, and perspectives.
The Seminar will consist of presentations, discussions, and group activities. Topics include historical antecedents; the Nazi system of power; eugenics and murder of the disabled; World War II; camps and ghettos; gender and sexuality; religion; victims’ responses; justice and retribution; and post-Holocaust controversies.
The Seminar is scheduled for June 6-17, 2011, and will be co-led by Doris L. Bergen, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies, Department of History, University of Toronto, Canada; and Barry Trachtenberg, Associate Professor of History and Interim Director, Center for Jewish Studies, University at Albany, State University of New York.
Professor Bergen is the author of Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich (1996); War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (2003 and 2009); The Sword of the Lord: Military Chaplains from the First to the Twenty-First Centuries (edited, 2004); and Lessons and Legacies VIII (edited, 2009). Her current research projects include a book on German military chaplains in the Nazi era and a study of definitions of Germanness as revealed in the ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) of Eastern Europe during World War II. A recipient of major teaching awards, Professor Bergen previously held faculty appointments at the Universities of Notre Dame and Vermont. She has served as a visiting professor at the University of Warsaw, Poland, and as an instructor in summer programs at the universities of Tuzla in Bosnia and Pristina in Kosovo. Professor Bergen is a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Academic Committee.
Barry Trachtenberg is author of The Revolutionary Roots of Modern Yiddish, 1903-1917, which examines the impact of the 1905 Russian Revolution on the formation of Yiddish scholarship. His current project, on the only attempt to publish a comprehensive encyclopedia in the Yiddish language, considers a broad range of historiographical questions on the shifting agenda of Yiddish-language research and the ways that the Nazi Holocaust shaped Jewish historians’ understanding of their task. In support of this project, he has been awarded a Summer Research Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In the spring of 2009, he was a Fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. In the summer of 2009, he was a research fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum. He teaches classes on the Nazi Holocaust, antisemitism, modern and medieval Jewish history, and Jewish nationalism.
Participants will be introduced to resources that may be used in research and teaching about the Holocaust, including the Museum’s library, document archives, memoir collection, photo archives, oral testimony collection, film and video archive, and Holocaust survivor database. Participants will also have the opportunity to consult and interact with Museum staff and visiting fellows.
For information on Museum collections, please visit the collections page.
Seminar applicants must be faculty members at accredited, baccalaureate-awarding institutions in North America. Applications must include: (1) a curriculum vitae; (2) a statement of the candidate’s specific interest and needs in strengthening his/her background in Holocaust history for the purpose of improving teaching; and (3) a supporting letter from a departmental chair or dean addressing the candidate’s qualifications and the institution’s commitment to Holocaust-related education. Syllabi of any Holocaust-related courses that the candidate has taught should also be included. Syllabi will be distributed at the seminar to facilitate discussion of successful teaching strategies.
Admission will be decided without regard to age, gender, race, creed, or national origin. A maximum of twenty applicants will be accepted. For non-local participants, the Center will help 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. Incidental, meal, and book expenses must be defrayed by the candidates or their respective institutions. All participants must attend the entire seminar from June 6-17.
Applications must be postmarked or received in electronic form no later than Monday, March 21, 2011, and sent to:
University Programs
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2126
fax: 202.479.9726
e-mail: university_programs@ushmm.org
For questions, contact Dr. Dieter Kuntz at dkuntz@ushmm.org or 202.314.1779.
The Curt C. and Else Silberman Foundation endowed the Silberman Seminar for University Faculty in memory of Curt C. and Else Silberman. The Foundation supports programs in higher education that promote, protect, and strengthen Jewish values in democracy, human rights, ethical leadership, and cultural pluralism.
