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Again devoting academic and community focus to one of modern history's greatest tragedies, Middle Tennessee State University is hosting its 15th biennial Holocaust Studies Conference on Thursday-Friday, March 6-7, on the MTSU campus.
Registration is open to this impactful conference that will once again bring together scholars from around the world and diverse disciplines to share their research with fellow academics, faculty, students and the public.
This year's conference theme is "Examining Holocaust Studies in Our World Today" and will focus on new methodologies, research techniques and digital resources. Attendees will hear from guest speakers and panelists, including a keynote address by professor Daniel H. Magilow, the Lindsay Young Professor of German and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Magilow's address will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 6, in the Student Union Ballroom on the second floor of the Student Union Building, 1768 MTSU Blvd. It is free and open to the public.
Conference registration for events without meals is free for all MTSU students, faculty and employees. To register and for cost details and options for the public, go to https://tinyurl.com/2nu539y8. Registration options vary from complete conference registration to individual events. Click here for a complete schedule of events, with most events held in the Student Union Ballroom unless noted otherwise.
This year's conference is organized through the MTSU Holocaust Studies Program under the leadership of conference chair Ashley Valanzola, assistant professor of the Holocaust in the History Department.
MTSU English professor and associate conference chair Elyce Helford said events like the biennial Holocaust Studies Conference are essential to understanding history and current events.
Conference discussions will include how research in Holocaust studies has responded to current events such as the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel as well as the war in Gaza, incidents of antisemitism worldwide, and the war in Ukraine.
"Considering how and why we study and teach the Holocaust today is a vital topic for understanding history and today's world," Helford said. "From hate groups, including Neo-Nazis, to racism, sexism, and antisemitism, studying the Holocaust in the context of contemporary cultural politics helps us think and act in ways that can build compassion and challenge injustice and violence.
"We hope academics, students, and the public will come to learn and grow with us."
• A panel discussion will be held from 4:15 to 5:45 p.m. March 6 in the James E. Walker Library to discuss "Preserving Memory: Perspectives on Collecting Holocaust Materials." This event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
• A Holocaust Educational Event on teaching the Holocaust will be held separately from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, in the Student Union Gallery Room located on the second floor of the Student Union . The event is free for MTSU students and educators. It will include short talks from the Tennessee Holocaust Commission and a history professor on how we study the Holocaust today and a visit from an adult child of a Holocaust survivor.
Registration is required for this event, and a meal is included. Register at https://bit.ly/3EVdUAx.
For off-campus visitors attending the events, a campus parking map is available at https://bit.ly/MTSUParking. There will be reserved parking in the Student Union. Golf cart transportation will be available for those with mobility issues.
Started in 1988, MTSU's Holocaust Studies Conference focuses on the many facets of Nazi Germany's systematic extermination of some 6 million Jews from 1941 to 1945 on the false premise that people of Aryan heritage represented a "master race" and were the only ones fit to survive. Other victims of Nazi persecution included homosexuals, ethnic Poles, Roma and Afro-Germans.
MTSU offers a minor in Jewish and Holocaust Studies under the direction of Helford. Learn more at https://jhstudies.mtsu.edu.
