Students retrace the boundaries of the former Nazi labor camp, Plasz贸w, outside of the Polish city of Krak贸w. (Photo by Annette Finley-Croswhite)
Teaching the difficult subject of the Holocaust will be the topic of a discussion to be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 6 in the New Education Building's Multipurpose Room.
"Un-Silencing the Past: Knowledge Gained Through Study Abroad" will be presented by the Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding, the Center for Faculty Development and the Office of Study Abroad. IJIU Director Amy Milligan encourages the University community to attend.
The evening will allow Annette Finley-Croswhite, professor of history and director of the Center for Faculty Development; Thomas Chapman, associate professor of geography; and the students they took with them to Poland last May to reflect on the experience in a public event and discuss what they each learned.
The audience will include students and faculty who have accompanied Finley-Croswhite on earlier study-abroad trips. As well as the specifics of the course "Landscapes of the Holocaust," she will address the incorporation of undergraduate research in the study-abroad experience. All faculty interested in study abroad are encouraged to come.
In addition to visiting Polish cities and former Nazi concentration and extermination camps on the May 2019 trip, the group worked with the humanitarian organization Yahad-In Unum to interview witnesses to Holocaust atrocities and visit newly discovered extermination sites. Students were thus exposed to methodologies of historical analysis, particularly in the context of conducting oral interviews and employing strategies for reading complex genocidal landscapes. The course also acquainted students with the realities of living in a period (today) of heightened antisemitism.
The event is free and open to the public. The opening reception includes food and beverages.