Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

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

Elyse Semerdjian, Ph.D.

Stephen and Marian Mugar and Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian’52 Chair

Research Highlights

Ken MacLean, Ph.D.

Professor, International Development and Social Change (IDCE) & Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies; Director: Genocide and Human Rights Concentration

Research Highlights

Frances Tanzer, Ph.D.

Rose Professor of Holocaust Studies and Modern Jewish History and Culture; Assistant Professor, Department of History

Research Highlights

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.

Read entire acknowledgement

Strassler Center in Focus

Documenting the Armenian Genocide: Essays in Honor of Taner Akçam

Honors the life and the work of Taner Akçam, the first Turkish intellectual to acknowledge the Armenian genocide
Includes twelve contributions from Armenian genocide scholars around the globe
Sheds new light on the historiography of the genocide, its perpetrators, victims, and bystanders

Link to book

Strassler students organize workshop

Strassler Center students Hana Green and Daan de Leeuw organized, together with five colleagues, the “26th Workshop on the History and Memory of National Socialist Camps and Killing Sites: Bodies and Borders,” which took place in Łódź, Poland, from 4-10 September 2023.

Read their entire report