Institute staff members teach courses at USC

Testimony from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive has enhanced nearly 250 university and college courses worldwide, including 67 at USC. This fall, members of the Institute’s staff will teach two additional courses that integrate testimony.

Karen Jungblut, the Institute’s Director of Research and Documentation, and Beth Meyerowitz, Professor of Psychology and a member of the Institute’s Faculty Advisory Council, will teach a graduate-level course in the Master of Liberal Studies Program. “Effects of Traumatic Experiences” (LBST 560) will explore the long-term mental health consequences of surviving genocide, using the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide as case examples.

Students will…

• Learn how quantitatively-oriented social scientists study social issues
• Become familiar with the basic scientific literature on emotional, cognitive, physiological, social, and health consequences of exposure to extreme trauma; consider how this literature can be applied to the case of survivors of the Holocaust and genocide
• Use the Visual History Archive to develop a project that explores trauma among survivors of genocide
• Compare and contrast aspects of the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide that might influence the psychological consequences for survivors

Dr. Dan Leshem, Associate Director of Academics & Research and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, will teach a freshman seminar titled “Conscience and Memory: Listening and Responding to Survivors of Genocide” (FSEM 100: 34621). The seminar will examine the intersection of history, memory, and memorialization with special focus on the Institute’s Visual History Archive.

Students will…

• Gain an appreciation for and understanding of testimony’s role, relevance, and potential in contemporary society
• Learn to think critically about the use of testimony in various discursive practices
• Create an original film project that explores the practical and ethical complexities of listening and responding to the voices of survivors

Click here to learn more about scholarship and research based on testimony from the Institute’s Visual History Archive.