Educating about Genocide and Mass Atrocities
The history of genocide, mass atrocities, crimes against humanity and their continuing consequences stand at the core of the Strassler Center at Clark University. Home to a uniquely rich undergraduate program and a landmark doctoral program, the Strassler Center is the first and only institute of its kind. Since 1998, it has gained international standing as the foremost PhD program training students in Holocaust History, the Armenian Genocide, and other genocides perpetrated around the globe. Center faculty and students foster important scholarship and germinate significant ideas as conveners of a robust series of international symposia, workshops, and conferences that broaden the boundaries of genocide studies by introducing less known cases and novel approaches. The causes, conduct, and consequences of genocide are complex and require multifaceted approaches. The Strassler Center is committed to pushing boundaries in order to foster greater knowledge as well as to train professionals who hope to find solutions, offer healing and aid, education, and opportunities for memorialization.
Our Faculty and Expertise
Thomas Kühne, Ph.D.
Director, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies; Strassler Colin Flug Chair in the Study of Holocaust History; Professor, Department of History
Research Highlights
Elyse Semerdjian, Ph.D.
Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies; Professor, Department of History
Research Highlights
Ken MacLean, Ph.D.
Professor, Sustainability and Social Justice; Professor, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Director: Genocide and Human Rights Concentration
Research Highlights
Frances Tanzer, Ph.D.
Rose Professor of Holocaust Studies and Modern Jewish History and Culture; Associate Professor, Department of History
Research Highlights
- Vanishing Vienna: Modernism, Philosemitism, and Jews in a Postwar City
- Podcast: Vanishing Vienna
- USHMM Conference – “Fleeing the Nazis: Austrian Jewish Refugees to the United States Panel II”
- “Performing the Austrian-Jewish (Negative) Symbiosis: Stella Kadmon’s Viennese Stage from Red Vienna to the Second Republic”
Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge the long history of Nipmuc peoples and their bonds of kinship on the land where the Strassler Center community teaches, learns, and researches about genocide and mass violence.
Strassler Center in Focus
Fall 2025 Newsletter
Thank you for being a part of the Strassler Center community. Please enjoy this newsletter, featuring upcoming events, news about graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty updates.
David P. Angel Endowed Chair
The Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University invites applications for the endowed David P. Angel Endowed Chair in Holocaust Pedagogy and Antisemitism Studies.
Featured Event
The David Atamian Journals: An Unparalleled Record of the Armenian Genocide
24 April 2026 |5:30pm |Higgins Lounge
Dana Commons
Speaker: Dr. Khachador Mouradian (Lecturer in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University, and the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress).
The David Atamian Journals: An Unparalleled Record of the Armenian Genocide
David Atamian (1892, Behesni–1978, Arlington, Virginia) survived the Armenian Genocide and produced an unparalleled multi-volume journal of the early twentieth century. The manuscript spans more than 10,000 pages in thirteen volumes, covering his youth, the genocide, and the postwar period. Donated to the Library of Congress in 1946, the manuscript was described as “perhaps the most significant, certainly the most unusual” acquisition of the year. In this illustrated talk, Dr. Mouradian offers the first scholarly reading of the manuscript, showing how the journals deepen our understanding of the late Ottoman era and shed light on the daily emotional world of deportees.
Upcoming Events
Contact Information
Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Contact Us
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Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Clark University
950 Main Street
Worcester, MA 01610 - 508-793-8897
- 508-793-8827 Fax