United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2020 Annual Seminar on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust
The Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is pleased to announce its annual seminar for faculty and ABD doctoral candidates from all disciplines, including religious studies, history, literature, sociology, political science, gender studies, philosophy, and area studies.
This seminar will consider the complex roles of religion (specifically Judaism and Christianity) in the Holocaust by addressing five key themes: everyday religious life under persecution; religion and violence; rescue, conversion, and coercion; religious/ethnic/national identities; and religious freedom in authoritarian societies. We will examine each topic through primary sources and secondary literature related to the Holocaust as well as consider how similar issues play out in other cases of genocide or mass atrocity in order to explore how Genocide Studies might deepen our understanding of religion and the Holocaust. The seminar will emphasize practical approaches to integrating these topics in university and seminary courses, including syllabus development and discussing sensitive material in the classroom.
The seminar will be co-led by Drs. Doris Bergen and Rebecca Carter-Chand. Doris Bergen is Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. She is the author or editor of five books, including War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (3rd edition 2016); Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich (1996); and The Sword of the Lord: Military Chaplains from the First to the Twenty-First Century (2004). Rebecca Carter-Chand is the Acting Director of the Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the USHMM. She is currently working on a book manuscript, “The Limits of Christian Internationalism and the Salvation Army in Germany” and is co-editing a volume with Kevin Spicer, “Christianity, Antisemitism, and Ethnonationalism in the Era of the Two World Wars.”