Educators and Experts Gather for Association of Holocaust Organizations Winter Seminar

By Cat Vazquez

Next week the USC Shoah Foundation will host the Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO) 2015 Winter Seminar: “Fading Memories and Emerging Voices: The Changing State of Holocaust Research.” The conference will take place at USC Jan. 12-14, and include participation from various AHO members that are Holocaust educators, genocide experts and representatives from Holocaust organizations around the world.

The Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO) was established in 1985 to serve as an international network of organizations and individuals for the advancement of Holocaust education, remembrance and research. Every winter AHO partners with organizations to host seminars focused on the advancement of genocide education and research. This year’s winter session will focus on informing participants about recent scholarship using testimonies from the Institute’s Visual History Archive, it is also the second year the Institute hosts the event.

William Shulman, President of AHO, said the goal for this seminar is to advance knowledge and research in the field.

The three day seminar will begin Monday and include nine workshops. USC Shoah Foundation’s Director of Research and Documentation, Karen Jungblut, will participate in a session called “Maintaining Resilience in the face of documenting genocide.” Edith Umugiraneza, USC Shoah Foundation Research Consultant, and Dr. Beth Meyerowitz, Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and Professor of Psychology, will also participate. The session will be chaired by Dr. Ellen Kennedy, Founder and Executive Director of World Without Genocide.

Dr. Kori Street, Director of Education at the USC Shoah Foundation, and Dr. Henry Jenkins, Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education, will participate in a panel titled: “Transliteracy and Digital Media - New Technologies and Holocaust Education.”

Other panels with USC Shoah Foundation staff participation include: “USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research Panel: New Perspectives and Emerging Scholarship,” with Dr. Dan Leshem, Associate Director of Research. As well as “Memory and Education:  Impact of Testimony on Education,” with Dr. Claudia Wiedeman, Associate Director of Educational Technologies and Training, and “Using Testimony to Teach University Classes,” with Dr. Amy Carnes, Associate Director of Education, Evaluation and Scholarship.

Dr. Jared McBride, 2014-2015 Margee and Douglas Greenberg Research Fellow of USC SF Center for Advanced Genocide Research, will join Dr. Leshem in the panel discussing emerging scholarship in the field.