International Digital Access, Outreach, and Research Conference 2010

Howard Gillman, Dean of USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Karen Jungblut, USC Shoah Foundation Institute Director of Research and Documentation.

Andrea Szonyi, USC Shoah Foundation Institute Executive Director in Hungary.

Leah Wolfson (foreground), Applied Research Scholar, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; and Ronald Coleman, Reference Librarian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

From left: Mark Baker, Director of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University; and Rosalind Olsen, Librarian, Australian Studies, Monash University.

Carolyn Ellis, Professor of Communications and Sociology at the University of South Florida, was a moderator at the conference.

Martin Lücke, Professor, Didactics of History, Freie Universität Berlin.

Daisy Miller, USC Shoah Foundation Institute Director of Development, Major Gifts.

Karen Small, Associate Director of the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life.

Stephen D. Smith, USC Shoah Foundation Institute Executive Director.

From left: Joanna Sliwa, Doctoral Candidate, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University; and Susan Gangl, Associate Librarian for Jewish Studies, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, University of Minnesota.

Roy Schwartzman, Professor of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

On March 25 and 26, 2010, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute hosted its first international academic conference.

The International Digital Access, Outreach, and Research Conference brought together representatives from 25 universities, museums, and other institutions that have access to the Institute's Visual History Archive, to discuss how it is being used in academia.

“The Visual History Archive will transform how we study the Holocaust and genocide. In fact, this transformation has already begun at universities and museums around the world,” said Howard Gillman, Dean of USC College. “But the testimonies are enhancing other studies as well, across a vast range of disciplines. We have much yet to discover about the depths of the archive’s academic potential as well as its limits; this unprecedented gathering of colleagues is a first-ever opportunity for us to truly learn together.”

The conference was made possible by a grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation, which is assisting the Institute in supporting a worldwide initiative to broaden access to the testimonies and increase their educational use throughout the world.

View press release

Watch video of the conference panels and download the "VHA in Practice," as well as the conference agenda.

Album posted on: June 1, 2010