Graduate Student Research

Read about the research of some of our Graduate Students:

	Sarah Cushman "The Women of Birkenau" Sarah is studying the women's camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau and will look at all the woman in that camp universe: prisoners, guards, functionaries, and civilian workers.
	Robin Krause "German Opposition to Genocide: The Case of the Herero, 1904-1907" Robin is exploring the several levels of German opposition at home to their government's genocide of the Herero people in Africa.
	Tiberiu Galis "Transitional Justice and Transition to Democracy: How Can a New Genocide/Politicide Be Avoided?" Tiberiu is examining the relationship between transitional justice and transition to democracy in the context of genocide prevention through four case studies: Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia.
	Rachel Iskov "Jewish Family Life in Lodz Ghetto" Rachel is examining the impact of Nazi anti-Jewish policies on familial roles and relationships: spousal, parent-child, intra-sibling. She is exploring the effect of life in extremis on these internal relationships and the ways in which each member, with its defining characteristics of gender and age, responded to Nazi persecution.
	Stefan Ionescu "Jews and non-Jews in Second World War Bucharest: A Case Study" a research project exploring the patterns of non-Jewish Romanian attitudes and practices towards their fellow Jewish citizens in the city of Bucharest during WWII Romania.
	Jeffrey Koerber "View from the Borderlands: Jews in Belorussia and Poland, 1935-1945" Jeff's dissertation is a comparative study of differing responses of Jews on opposite sides of the Soviet-Polish border before, during, and immediately after the Holocaust focusing on individual and institutional perspectives of Jews in two urban centers: Vitebsk in the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and Grodno in the Polish Republic.
	Beth Lilach "Aftermath of Liberation: Jewish Life in Displaced Persons Camps, Germany 1945-1957" Beth's doctoral research focuses on the displaced persons camps following the end of World War II. Current Employment as Director of Education at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, New York.
	Ilana Offenberger "The Nazification of Vienna and the Response of the Viennese Jews" Ilana will analyze the Jewish response to the persecution and plunder that befell the Viennese community after the Anschluss. This work poses new questions of the archives of the Finance Ministry, and draws upon recently discovered archives of the Jewish community.
	Lotta Stone "Seeking Asylum: Jewish Refugees to South Africa 1930-1948" Lotta asks the question, "How white are Jews?" as she examines pre-emigration lives, how the refugees adapted to their new circumstances, and how South African Jews and non-Jews reacted to the immigrants.
	Adara Goldberg “The Forgotten Heroines of the Holocaust," and will be a cross-cultural examination of young Jewish girls and women who participated in rescue and resistance activities in France and Poland during the War.
	Graduated Students
	Beth Cohen, Ph.D. "Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors in Postwar America, 1946-1954" Graduated, October 2003. Currently employed as a lecturer at California State University in Northridge, California.
	Christine Schmidt, Ph.D. "The Plateau of Hospitality: Jewish Refugee Life on the Plateau Vivarais-Lignon" Graduated, October 2003. Currently employed as the Director of Education at The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in New York City.
	Naama Haviv, MA "The Pre-Conditions for ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ through ‘Population Transfer’: The Case of Israel-Palestine" Graduated, October 2006. Currently employed as a Projects Manager at the Jewish World Watch in Los Angeles, California.

Sarah Cushman

Fellowships:
Steven Spielberg Fellow for Graduate Studies in Holocaust History, 2001-2006
Holocaust Educational Foundation Fellowship, 2004-2005
Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006-2007

Publications:
"Budy: Gender, Power, and Prisoner Relations," Collection from The Legacy of the
    Holocaust: Women and the Holocaust Conference, Jagiellonian University Press,
    December 2005
"Women Perpetrators at Auschwitz-Birkenau," Probing the Boundaries/At the Interface
    Series, Collette Balmain and Lois Drawmer, eds. (Rodopi Publishers, October 2005).

Presentations:
"Annihilatory Violence: Women's Responses to the Dehumanizing Environment of the
    Women's Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau," 18th Annual Feminist and Women's
    Studies, Association (UK & Ireland) Conference, Gender and Violence, Scotland,
    September 2005.
"Sexuality, and Sexual Violence at Auschwitz-Birkenau," Third Annual Conference on
    Gender Issues and the Holocaust, Israel, September 2005.
"Budy: Gender, Power, and Prisoner Relations,"The Legacy of the Holocaust: Women
    and the Holocaust, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, May 2005.

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Robin Krause

Fellowships:
Siff Fellow for Graduate Studies in Holocaust History, 2004-2005
German Historical Institute, Summer Seminar, June 2005
Fromson Fellow for Graduate Studies in Holocaust History, 2003-2004

Presentations:
"Division and Isolation as Experienced by Jewish Survivors in Auschwitz," The First
Annual Student Conference on Faith and History, Conference, Huntington, IN,
October 2002.

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Tiberiu Galis

Fellowships:
Rose Fellow for Graduate Studies in Holocaust History, 2003-2008
Open Society Institute Soros Foundation Global Supplementary Grant, 2004-2006

Employment:
Consultant, Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconsiliation, November 2006-2007
Research Director, Reform Agenda - Think Tank, London, Summer 2004.
Consultant, Genocide Risk Assessment, All Party Commission on Great Lakes and
    Genocide Prevention, February 2004.

Presentations:
"The Importance of Doing Nothing: International Actors and Genocide Prevention,
    "International Studies Association Annual Conference, San Diego, CA, March 2006.
"Bystanders in Contemporary Genocide: Sudan," Central and Northern England
    Graduate Conference, Departments of Government, International Politics, and
    Philosophy at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, November 2004.
"Fifteen Years after 1989: Why Coming to Terms with the Past in Hungary and
    Romania is Still a Political Issue," AAASS (American Association for the
    Advancement of Slavic Studies) National Convention, Boston, MA, April 2004.
"Truth and Reconciliation? Truth Commission Theory," War, Culture and
    Humanity Conference, Manchester, United Kingdom, April 2004.

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Adara Goldberg

Fellowships:

Ralph and Shirley Rose Fellow for Graduate Studies in Holocaust History, 2006-2011
International Summer Yiddish Program Scholarship, Goldreich Institute, Tel Aviv University’s Summer Yiddish Program, 2007

Presentations:
“Survival as Gentiles: Jewish Women ‘Passing’ as Gentiles in the Holocaust,” Graduate Student
Multidisciplinary Conference, Clark University, Worcester, MA, April 2007.

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Rachel Iskov

Fellowships:
Claims Conference (The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany)
    Graduate Studies Fellow, 2003-2005
Gildin Yiddish Book Scholarship, National Yiddish Book Center, 2005-06
Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
    2005
Holocaust Educational Foundation Fellowship, 2005

Presentations:
"Jewish Refugees from the Surrounding Communities in the Warsaw and Łódź Ghettos," Ninth Biennial
    Lessons and Legacies Conference on the Holocaust, Claremont, CA, November, 2006
"Notions of Family in the Lodz Ghetto," Beyond Numbers, Beyond Names:
    The Experience of Holocaust Victims Conference, Youngstown State University,
    April 2006.
"Hunger and Family Life in the Lodz and Warsaw Ghettos," The Legacy of the
    Holocaust: Women and the Holocaust, Jagiellonian University, Krakow,
    Poland, May 2005.

Stefan Ionescu

Fellowships:
Claims Conference (The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany)
Graduate Studies Fellow, 2006-2008

Presentations:
"The Dynamic Concept of Resistance in post-Holocaust Remembrance," panel entitled, Holocaust in Southeastern Europe, The 39th National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), New Orleans, Louisiana, November 2007

"Holocaust and Gulag – Variants of the Concept of Genocide? Between International Law and Contemporary Theories of Collective Violence," Holocaust and Gulag in Romanian Consciousness, Babes Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Political Studies and Journalism, Cluj Napoca, Romania, May 2007.

"Confronting the Legacy of the Holocaust in Romania," The State of Holocaust Studies in South-eastern Europe: Problems, Obstacles and Perspectives Conference, Sarajevo, Bosnia, October 2006.

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Jeffrey Koerber

Fellowships:
Claims Conference (The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany),
    Graduate Studies Fellow, 2003-2006
Fulbright Grant to Belarus, 2007
Tauber Institute Award, Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, 2006–2007
YIVO Yiddish Studies Scholarship, 2005

Presentations:
"National Memorial to Individual Remembrance: Presenting History at Gedenkstätte
    Buchenwald." Second International Conference on European History:
    From Ancient to Modern Athens, Athens Instititute for Education and Research,
    Greece, December 2004.

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Beth Lilach

Fellowships:
Tapper Fellow for Graduate Studies in Holocaust History, 1998-2003
International Association of Genocide Scholars, Graduate Scholarship, 2003
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation Research Fellowship, Summer 2002
National Women’s Studies Association, Jewish Caucus Prize, 200
Northwestern University Holocaust Institute Fellow, 2001
YIVO Yiddish Studies Scholarship, 2000

Employment:
Director of Education, Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, New York, July 2007
Lecturer, Florida Atlantic University, Davie Campus, 2003 – 2006.
Instructor, Yeshiva Academy (high school level), “Jewish Life and Resistance During the Holocaust,” Worcester, Academic Years 2001-02 and 2002-03.

Presentations:
"Idiots, Imbeciles, and the Loathsome Diseased": The Hidden History of Postwar Refugees, Refugees and the End of Empire Conference, De Montfort University, Leicester, England, 29-30 June 2007
“From Africa to Auschwitz: The Herero Genocide and the Origins of Nazi Eugenics” International Association of Genocide Scholars Conference, Genocide and the World Community: Accountability, Consequences, & Prevention, Irish Human Rights Centre, Galway, Ireland, June 2003

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Ilana Offenberger

Fellowships:
Claims Conference (The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany)
    Graduate Studies Fellow, 2003-2006
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies Fellowship, United States Holocaust
    Memorial Museum, 2007

Presentations:
"An Ethical Problem: The Assets Transfer Agency and the 'Legalized' Robbery
    of the Viennese Jews," 35th Annual Scholar's Conference on the Holocaust
    and the Churches, Philadelphia, PA, March 2005.

Lotta Stone

Fellowships:
Claims Conference (The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany)
    Graduate Studies Fellow, 2003-2006
Kaplan Research Fellowship, Kaplan Center for Jewish Studies, University of Cape
    Town, South Africa, 2005
Yiddish for Holocaust Research Fellowship, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies,
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2004

Presentations:
"Romani: The 'Forgotten Victims'," War, Culture, and Humanity Conference,
    Manchester University, Manchester, England, April 2004.

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Beth Cohen, Ph.D.

Employment:
Lecturer, California State University and Chapman University, CA

Fellowships and Prizes:
"Life Reborn" Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial
    Museum for research on Displaced Persons, 2004-2005
Peter Hayes Research Fellowship, Holocaust Educational Foundation, 2002-2003
Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, Temple University, Summer Fellowship,
    Summer 2001

Publications:
Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors in Postwar America
    (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press and US Holocaust
    Memorial Museum, 2006)

Presentations:
“Unaccompanied Minors: The Story of Orphan DPs,” Beyond Camps & Forced
    Labour: Current International Research on Survivors of Nazi Persecution Conference
    Imperial War Museum, London, January 2006
“The Myth of Silence: Survivors Tell a Different Story,” AJS Conference, December 2006

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Christine Schmidt, Ph.D.

Employment:
Educational Director, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, New York, 2007
Post-doctoral Fellow, Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary, 2005-2006
Researcher, Bader Foundation Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies,
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, August 2003 - 2005.

Fellowships:
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Hungarian Scholarship Board, Hungarian Ministry of Education,
    Interdisciplinary Doctoral School of International Relations, Sponsored in conjunction
    with Corvinus University of Budapest, 2005-present
Rose Fellow for Graduate Studies in Holocaust History, 1998-2003

Presentations:
“Testing the Limits of Existence after the Holocaust: The Image of the Pear in Samuel
    Bak's Work,” Society of Biblical Literature/American Academy of Religion,
    Philadelphia, November 2005
“La Guespy: Jewish Daily Life in Hiding on the Plateau Vivarais-Lignon,” International
    Conference, Perspectives on Social Science History; Thinking Globally, Researching
    Locally, Working Cooperatively Conference, Social Science History Association,
    St. Louis, MO, October 2002

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Naama Haviv, Fifth Year, MA

Employment:
Projects Manager, Jewish World Watch in Los Angeles, California, 2007
US Schools and the Global Connections and Exchange Project (US) Coordinator for
Relief International, Los Angeles, CA. 2006-2007
Intern, Institute for the Study of Genocide Newsletter, January 2006 - December 2007

Fellowships:
Tapper Fellow for Graduate Studies in Holocaust History, 2003-2006
Stern Family Foundation Doctoral Research Fellowship, 2005-2006
Intern, Institute for the Study of Genocide Newsletter, January 2006 – December 2007
Country Researcher, Reform Agenda, London, August 2004.

Publications:
“Israel’s Democratic Fallacy,” Reform Agenda, London, Summer 2004.

Presentations:
“The Importance of Doing Nothing,”
Sixth Global Conference on Evil and Human Wickedness, Prague, March 2005.

Check out her active learning page: Naama Haviv is a firm advocate of active learning, and describes the several internships that she has incorporated into her undergraduate and graduate studies as being some of her most valuable experiences.

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