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The Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies reaches out to the community in a variety of ways, including through public lectures and events, teacher training, and consultation with media on related issues. |
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2005 Annual Report
Undergraduate Student News
Clark's undergraduate concentration in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (HGS) brings together students from a wide variety of majors with a common interest in gaining a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and genocide. This dynamic, interdisciplinary program provides extraordinary learning opportunities, such as the bi-annual Prague/Terezín Program and summer internships, that often allow students to examine these catastrophic events where they happened. The following HGS students took advantage of such opportunities this past year.
Akosua Ampofo '05 received an Anton Fellowship from Clark to study child-headed households in Rwanda during summer 2004. She worked with World Vision to interview members of child-headed households — people age 25 or under who were orphaned by the 1994 genocide or AIDS — community leaders, and nongovernmental organizations in the Gikongoro region of Rwanda to assess their attitudes and beliefs about community cohesiveness and mutual support. Ampofo's research constituted her honors thesis for her double major in geography and international development. This was Ampofo's third internship in Africa and her second in Rwanda. She previously interned
With Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages ( PEARL ), a project affiliated with USAID, and with Action Aid Ghana. Ashley Borell '06, a sociology major, spent two weeks near Kraków , Poland , helping to uncover and restore a Jewish cemetery at the site of the Plaszow concentration camp, which was featured in the movie “Schindler's List.” When inmates of Plaszow, Borell's grandmother and great-aunt had been issued sledgehammers to smash Jewish headstones. Borell undertook this project under the auspices of Experiential Learning International, Inc., an organization that provides opportunities for volunteer work and internships around the globe. Upon her return to Clark , she compiled photographs from Plaszow and a description of her experiences there for a powerful display at Cohen-Lasry House.
Supported by the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Award for Holocaust Studies Scholars from Clark's Holocaust and Genocide Studies concentration, Sara Brown '05 spent seven weeks during summer 2004 working with the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) in Rwanda. AVP partners with the government's Gacaca courts, a local system of traditional justice. Brown was assigned the crucial task of defining “genocide” and incorporating it into a training manual for all Gacaca ministers of justice and personnel. She also facilitated trainings on this subject throughout Rwanda. Brown was interviewed about her experience in Rwanda for the 29 November 2004 issue of the New York Times UPFRONT magazine. She hopes to return to Africa to continue her work as a human rights advocate.
Claude Kaitare '05 continued his work to educate others about the Rwandan genocide. At the end of April 2005, Kaitare spoke to undergraduates in Dr. Thomas Doughton's seminar “Holocaust and 20th-Century Genocide” at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester about his experience as a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. Kaitare gave the students a history of Rwanda , discussed his experiences during the genocide, and answered questions. His talk at the College of the Holy Cross was one of many speaking engagements for Kaitare this past year. He spoke at Bay Path College in Western Massachu-setts and at several high schools in the Boston area, including Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School , Codyman Academy , Lexington High School , and Charlestown High School. Continuing a long relationship with Facing History and Ourselves, Kaitare participated in the Facing History Youth Symposium, held over two weekends in Boston , and spoke to an audience of nearly 1,200 at the Facing History Benefit Dinner on 12 May 2005. He is also a member of the Facing History Speakers Bureau.
After graduating from Clark in May, Kaitare continued his study of the Holocaust and genocide by participating in the Prague/Terezín Program. In July, he returned to Rwanda for the first time since the genocide in 1994. He hoped to work with the Gacaca courts, possibly as a translator or as a resource for the leaders of the judicial courts. He would also like to work with teachers there. This is Kaitare's ultimate goal — to continue working with teachers to help them educate others about the Holocaust and genocide.
While not officially an HGS student, Joshua Franklin '06 has a special affinity for the program. His history major and concentration in Jewish studies intersect in the many HGS courses he has taken at Clark. A participant in the 2005 Prague/Terezín Program, Franklin was the only undergraduate to present a paper at the 35th Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, held in Philadelphia from 5 to 8 March 2005. He co-presented the paper This is What I Saw, This is What Happened: First Person Testimony with his mother Karen Franklin, a genealogist with a keen interest in the Holocaust. The paper grew from research Josh conducted for a course on “Holocaust Perpetrators” that he took with Robert Jan van Pelt, when Dr. van Pelt served as the Strassler Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Center in spring 2004. Franklin focused on correspondence between his grandfather Walter Spiegel, a German-born American Jewish soldier in World War II, and his English-born great-grandfather Julian Spiegel.
“I wanted to know everything I could about the experience and realities of the Holocaust and what my relatives had been through. This trip allowed me to see a lot with my own eyes.”
— Ashley Borell '06 on the two weeks she spent helping to restore a Jewish cemetery near the Plaszow concentration camp in Poland
“Having been in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Concentration since my sophomore year, I've been able to use other genocides, such as Cambodia and the Holocaust, to make comparisons to help people understand what happened in Rwanda.”
— Claude Kaitare '05 on the value of his HGS education to his talks about the Rwandan genocide
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