Jewish police escort a group of Jews who have been rounded up for deportation in the Łódź ghetto, June 1944. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Jehuda Widawski
The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies announces the call for applications for the 2022 Curt C. and Else Silberman Faculty Seminar on Teaching Holocaust Photographs.
Drawing on multidisciplinary methods, the 2022 Silberman Seminar explores Holocaust photography, how and why these images were originally created, and how Holocaust photographs have been used in scholarship, teaching, and the public domain. Drawing on new work in the field of Holocaust studies as well as classic texts on photography, the seminar will explore methods for identifying, interpreting, and contextualizing Holocaust photos by victims, perpetrators, and witnesses. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ethical considerations surrounding whether “to show” or “not to show” Holocaust photographs in and beyond the college classroom, especially when so many of them were taken by perpetrators. The facilitators will also open a dialogue about post-Holocaust personal photos of remembrance, historical photos that have been appropriated or altered, and artistic representations that engage with the photographic representations of the Holocaust.
Seminar Leaders
Dr. Valerie Hébert, Associate Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Studies, Lakehead University Orillia, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Daniel H. Magilow, Professor of German, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
Seminar applicants must be teaching or anticipate teaching relevant courses at accredited institutions in North America. This includes colleges, universities, and community colleges.
Applications must be received in electronic form no later than March 15, 2022.
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.
