Professor Amy Hudnall, a JHP affiliated faculty member, teaches one of the two new gateway classes for ASU's minor in Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies. Her course is cross-listed with ASU's Global Studies Program.
The Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies supports and coordinates a broad array of educational and research opportunities for students, teachers, faculty members, and the community at large.
The Center fosters the interdisciplinary study of the Holocaust and other modern genocides. In order to comprehend practices of systematic mass murder and genocidal societies, it is pivotal to draw on a variety of fields from sociology, anthropology, and history to political science, philosophy, and religious studies and scrutinize a multilayered source base, ranging from film and photography to literary, diplomatic, and government sources. The study of the Holocaust and modern genocides provides insights into the preconditions and unfolding of systematic mass murder, how ordinary men and women come to participate in these crimes and the responses, "choiceless choices" (Lawrence L. Langer), and acts of contestation by victimized populations. These explorations also center on possible forms of intervention and problematize silence in the face of genocide, always combining analysis with reflections on social and civic responsibilities.
The study of the Holocaust is combined with a multi-layered examination of Judaism and histories of Jewish populations worldwide that cannot be reduced to ongoing episodes of violence. Over the centuries, Jewish communities developed a complex theology, laws, and cultural traditions. Many of these traditions also inform practices of waging peace, which is at the core of the Center's third focus. Combined with a knowledge of Jewish cultures and histories and meanings of the Holocaust, the exploration of theories and languages of peace studies underpin the search for human improvement and a world increasingly free of violence and genocide.
All About the Minor
The College of Arts and Sciences offers a minor in Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies. ASU faculty members often involved with the work of the Center are teaching courses. The Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies supports this minor by organizing research colloquia, bringing leading scholars in the field of Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies to campus for talks and meetings with students and faculty, and offering financial support for research trips.
Minor in Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies (126/30.2101)
A student may earn an undergraduate minor in Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies by successful completion of an interdisciplinary program of 18 semester hours.
For additional information, contact Dr. Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, the Program Director for the minor, at thomaspegelowkaplan@appstate.edu or (828) 262-6118.