CCHS Summer Institute on the Holocaust

CCHS Summer Institute on the Holocaust
With Advanced Seminar on the Holocaust and Genocide

2013 Summer Institute: July 14-20

The 2013 Summer Institute is an intensive, residential one-week educational experience for teachers and those interested in this topic. The Summer Institute grounds participants in basic themes of Holocaust and genocide studies while exploring multidisciplinary pedagogical approaches and applications for the classroom and other educational settings.

Expert faculty will explore the Holocaust and Genocide together with previous Institute graduates (CCHGS Fellows). During the week, participants will be introduced to scholars from a number of disciplines who teach in Holocaust & Genocide Studies, explore primary as well as secondary sources, and be active partners in their learning. Classroom application will be an important focus throughout the week.

Costs for the institute are significantly offset by grants and gifts so that teachers, especially, may take advantage of this opportunity. Participants receive room and board, texts, and other resource materials for their fees. Teachers may choose to apply for graduate credits via Continuing Education at Keene State College.

Graduates of this program become Cohen Center Fellows who are charged with promoting the mission of the Cohen Center in their schools and communities. Upon completion of the Institute, Cohen Fellows will receive a Keene Link Card giving them access with lending privileges to both the Mason Library holdings (including the Cohen Center’s) and Keene Public Library.

Graduate Level Credit

Two courses are being offered to provide graduate level credit to interested participants in the Summer Institute. Both of these are listed as summer classes, $880 / 4 graduate credits (Subject to change).

These are considered general elective credit and often do not apply toward a specific graduate degree. Students interested in graduate level credit who are current or potential Keene State graduate students, please contact Heather Jasmin before signing up. There are some options available which might help the class fit better into their specific curriculum.

The courses:

• 2013SF KSC 690 S02C - Summer Institute on the Holocaust
• 2013SF KSC 690 S01C - Fellows Seminar on the Holocaust and Genocide

Students can contact the Continuing Education office at 603-358-2290 or continuing-ed@keene.edu to register for either of these courses.

Track 1:
Holocaust and Genocide Education in the 21st Century

Designed for first time attendees, the introductory track will introduce participants to the study of the Holocaust, its complex history, its dislocating character, and its catastrophic encounter with human evil. In the process, participants will examine why we teach and explore how human beings develop the potential to commit genocide.

Some of the basic themes we hope to discuss include: the dislocating nature of the Holocaust; the multiple factors that came together like a ”perfect storm” to create the Nazi genocide; origins and expressions of antisemitism; Jewish life before and after the Shoah; institutional, professional, as well as personal culpability; the rise of Nazi power and the ”Twisted Road to Auschwitz”; forms of resistance and survival; living in the aftermath; respect for the other in a post Holocaust world.

Institutes are offered biennially in odd-numbered years.

Comments from Participants

• "Coming into this intensive week of study, I expected to simply be overwhelmed by the amount of information I was to receive, and the possible traumatic nature of the subject matter. I expected that I was to be subjected to a great deal of emotional impact, but I did not know the complexity of what it was that I was to experience: laughter as well as sadness, hope along with despair." [read more… PDF]
  – Charlotte Gross
• Participating in the 2004 Summer Institute on the Holocaust was an inspiring experience for me personally and as a teacher … It was the most powerful, intense, and open educational experience I have ever had."
  – Clare Fedolfi, Tobey School
• "The weeklong Summer Institute was an experience that I know I will not easily put aside."
  – Diane Bush, Jaffrey-Rindge Middle School
• "Everyone involved in the Institute, including the Fellows themselves, made this week an incredible learning experience by allowing me to see the issues surrounding the Holocaust in so many different ways. It gave me great pride and happiness to work with so many educators who shared common goals: achieving peace, love, and respect (not tolerance) in this world. After this week, I realized, there is hope."
  – Brooke Chaney, Cawley Middle School
• "… I realize that I have been given a truly wonderful gift in the form of extraordinary presenters and the company of participants from diverse backgrounds. This gift, however, is one that comes with strings attached. By taking part in the Institute, we have all accepted a share of the responsibility in assisting the Cohen Center achieve its aim...I am most grateful for this opportunity."
  – Linda Minickiello, Monadnock Regional High School.
• "The effects of the week will, I suspect, have lasting and rippling impact. I comprehend more viscerally the difference between tolerance and mutual respect, … yet critical in teaching of the Holocaust is an essential need to be more careful than my standard emotional reactions represent. That may be the most important lesson I’ve learned at the Institute."
  – Alan Shulman, Sunapee Middle High School.
• "I want to thank the Cohen Center for providing an excellent and meaningful week of scholastic examination of the Holocaust … The participation of other teachers from Germany and Estonia added immeasurably to everything that was discussed both in class and outside of class."
  – Ellen Barry, Winnisquam High School.
• "I loved this week. I grew – I stretched – I know I will be a better teacher and person."
• "I cannot express how much I enjoyed the Institute."