2025 Holocaust Studies Summer Program

New Perspectives on Researching and Teaching the Holocaust in Ukraine and Romania

Monday, July 7-Friday, July 11, 2025 

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), in cooperation with the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania and the Faculty of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, are pleased to invite applications for the Holocaust Studies Summer Program entitled, New Perspectives on Holocaust Researching and Teaching in Ukraine and Romania. The program is scheduled for July 7-11, 2025, in Iași, Romania.

This training seminar is organized for doctoral students and university faculty who research, teach, or prepare to teach about the Holocaust at the university level. The first Holocaust Studies Summer Program was held in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2016. It created a platform that brought together leading Holocaust experts, junior scholars, and university faculty to discuss new Holocaust research, sources, and teaching approaches in university courses. 

Due to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, the 2025 program will take place in Iași, Romania. The 2025 program is dedicated to overlapping topics in the Holocaust history of Romania and Ukraine. It will convene researchers and university faculty from these countries for the first time to discuss the most recent Holocaust research and teaching.

Program Overview

Designed for doctoral students and university faculty, the program covers a variety of themes that deal with the Holocaust in Romania and territories under Romanian administration in Soviet Ukraine. Presentations and discussions will cover a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, anti-Jewish laws, antisemitism, anti-Jewish violence, ghettoization, deportations to Transnistria, the role of local administration during the Holocaust, Jewish-non-Jewish relations, Jewish leadership, Roma genocide, and postwar trials. 

Daily sessions will consist of presentations by invited Holocaust experts, discussions of participants' projects, sources, teaching methods, and guided tours to related sites in Iași. 

Applications Details

Applications will be accepted from scholars at all career levels. We especially encourage those who work on the above-mentioned topics at universities and research institutions in Ukraine and Romania. 

Applications are welcome from scholars with an interdisciplinary background working in any relevant academic discipline, including, but not limited to, anthropology, archaeology, art history, geography, film studies, history, Jewish studies, law, literature, museum studies, philosophy, political science, religion, and sociology. 

Applications must include: 

• A statement outlining research interests related to the Holocaust in Romania and/or Romanian-occupied Soviet territories during WWII (no more than 750 words) OR a description of the Holocaust course syllabus that you have taught or plan to teach at a university level (no more than 750 words). 

• A curriculum vitae (not to exceed 4 pages)

Deadline

Applications must be received electronically by Thursday, February 20, 2025. Incomplete applications will not be considered after this date, and late applications will not be accepted. The selected participants will be notified by March 20, 2025.

Participants must commit to attending the entire program. The program will be conducted in English. 

Travel

The organizers will cover the costs of economy-class travel from the participants’ home institutions to Iași, lodging, and meals for the duration of the summer program. Participants must obtain their visas and health insurance, if relevant. 

Please direct any questions about the program to USHMM’s Program Officer, Natalya Lazar (nlazar@ushmm.org).

This program is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Piotr and Basheva Polsky Memorial Initiative for the Study of Ukrainian Jewry.