Rachel Deblinger and Paul Jaskot (Duke) lead a cohort of 20 university faculty at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The 2017 Curt C. and Else Silberman Seminar for University Faculty is titled Visualizing the Holocaust and the Use of Digital Humanities in the Classroom.
Mapping, data visualization, and text analysis invite new modes of thinking about the experiences of Jews during the Final Solution as well as the way survivors have remembered and commemorated this history over the last 75 years. At the same time, the intersection of Holocaust studies and online tools raises issues of contemporary concern: How is knowledge about the Holocaust transmitted to audiences around the world?
The two week seminar is motivated by this question and the sessions focus on the role of digital tools in shaping how we understand and teach the history and representation of the Holocaust. Participants will explore a range of digital tools, including Omeka.net, Storymaps, and Voyant, that can be used in the classroom to focus student attention on the Holocaust in new ways. Resources held in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s extensive Holocaust archives create meaningful opportunities for incorporating new methods and sources into undergraduate courses focused on the Holocaust.
Click here to find details about the seminar, including the syllabus and digital resources for teaching about the Holocaust.