Opening Reception | Friday, September 22, 2023 | ADP Center
Upcoming Events
Teaching the Holocaust Using the Humanities: Integrating Photographs, Literature, Art, and Poetry to Tell the Human Story
Echoes & Reflections Workshop
Friday, October 25, 2024 | 9am – 3pm | On campus at Montclair State University
Free, advanced registration is required: https://bit.ly/HolocaustHumanities
Please join us for a new Holocaust education workshop on campus at Montclair State University. This program is free and open to all educators and Montclair State University students.
This hands-on workshop is appropriate for all educators, from beginners to master teachers.
Learn new ways to integrate primary sources into Holocaust instruction to emphasize the human experience and cultivate empathy. This program focuses on photography, art, and poetry, and offers educators access to primary sources including The Auschwitz Album. Participants will study the context surrounding these pieces and how to use these texts to create meaningful and engaging lessons that emphasize the dangers of antisemitism and the endurance of the human spirit.
Echoes & Reflections is the premier source for Holocaust educational materials and dynamic content, empowering teachers and students with the insight needed to question the past and foresight to impact the future. We partner with educators to support them, foster confidence, and amplify their skills and resources to teach about the Holocaust in a comprehensive and meaningful way.
Past Events
Native American Women’s Activism & Resistance: A Workshop for K-12 Educators
Thursday, May 2, 2024 | 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM | Online Workshop
Free and open to all!
Native American women have fought for political sovereignty and cultural autonomy since the first moments of European contact. In this workshop we will examine the life stories of Native American women activists from the 20th and 21st centuries in order to help educators develop content knowledge and pedagogical approaches to teaching Native American history in ways that center indigenous women’s knowledge, power, and resistance.
Join faculty from Montclair State University’s Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) program and educators from the New-York Historical Society in this hands-on teaching workshop. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about current scholarship in the field, and gain access to primary source material and lessons in Native American history.
Professional Development Hours awarded to educators.
Analyzing Propaganda & Teaching Media Literacy: The Holocaust as a Case Study
Echoes & Reflections Workshop
Friday, March 22, 2024 | 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Registration has ended for this event.
Free & open to all New Jersey K-12 educators and Montclair State University students, faculty, and staff!
This professional development workshop offers hands-on training in how to teach about the Holocaust in meaningful and effective ways, and prepares teachers to help students analyze propaganda and develop critical media literacy skills.
Why attend this program?
Media literacy skills have become essential for young people to successfully navigate and critically assess the ever-increasing amount of information they receive throughout their day — on social media, advertisements, television, and film. Therefore, it is crucial for students to comprehend and identify how media, both historically and in contemporary society, can be used as a tool to incite hate and violence against certain groups.
This learning opportunity examines the events of the Holocaust through the lens of media, by examining propaganda deployed by the Nazis to discriminate against Jews and other minorities. Educators will gain the tools to facilitate classroom discussions on the role and impact of Nazi propaganda during the Holocaust and support their students to critically analyze media in today’s world.
Includes hands-on activities, lesson plans, resources including primary sources like photos, historical texts, and survivor testimony, and more.
The Armenian Genocide, One Family’s Story
Special Exhibit
August 28, 2023 – December 15, 2023
ADP Center for Learning Technologies
Suite 1122 University Hall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3iHke8by-0
The Armenian Genocide exhibit, hosted in the ADP Center for Learning Technologies, traces the journey of Arek and Moses Zakarian from the turn of the twentieth century in the Ottoman Empire through genocide, survival, migration, and reemergence in the United States.
Visitors will engage with the family’s personal photos, memoirs, musical instruments, artifacts, and artwork – all of which serve as a backdrop to the broader history of the Armenian Genocide and related issues, including cultural loss and collective memory.
Importantly, the Zakarian story connects us to other survivor and refugee communities in New Jersey, highlighting our common humanity.
No registration necessary, parking is available in the Red Hawk visitor’s parking deck for a fee.
This exhibit is up and open to the public during the normal hours of the ADP Center for Learning Technologies through December 15, 2023. For more information or to schedule a class visit, please contact Dr. Zoë Burkholder, Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Huan Rights Education Project at burkholderz@montclair.edu.
Sponsored by The College for Education and Engaged Learning, The ADP Center for Learning Technologies, Stockton University, and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.
Teaching about Genocide: An Echoes & Reflections Workshop
Friday, October 27, 2023 | 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Register: https://bit.ly/TeachGenocide
Free and open to all New Jersey K-12 educators and MSU students!
The Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Project at Montclair State University is honored to host a new Echoes & Reflections workshop: Teaching about Genocide. This workshop is designed to prepare secondary teachers teach about historical genocides in compassionate and meaningful ways. This is hard — but vitally important — work, and in the state of New Jersey educators are required to help students understand genocides including the Holocaust. We’re here to help with hands on, engaging lessons you can bring straight to your classroom. Appropriate for beginners and more experienced teachers– all are welcome, come as you are.
What is genocide? Who were the people before they became victims? How did genocide occur? How do we remember a genocide? In asking these questions about four genocides of the 20th century, the purpose of this program and accompanying teaching material is to encourage critical thinking in students to explore the concept of genocide and analyze some of the common themes seen across multiple genocides. This unit challenges students to find value and meaningful lessons in the study of genocide and how memory and the understanding of genocides of the past can empower them to act against hatred today.
Includes a visit to our special exhibit this fall at Montclair State University: Armenian Genocide:
One Family’s Story.
Sponsored by The College for Education and Engaged Learning, The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, and Echoes & Reflections.
Book Talk:
Touchy Subject: The History and Philosophy of Sex Education
by Dr. Lisa Andersen and Dr. Lauren Bialystok
Friday, November 17, 2023 | 12:45 PM – 2:00 PM
ADP Center for Learning Technologies, University Hall
Free and Open to the MSU Community! Presentation will be followed with a Q & A session.
Join authors Dr. Lisa Andersen and Dr. Lauren Bialystok for a riveting discussion of their new book!
In the United States, sex education is more than just an uncomfortable rite of passage: it’s a political hobby horse that is increasingly out of touch with young people’s needs. In Touch Subject, philosopher Lauren Bialystok and historian Lisa M. F. Andersen unpack debates over sex education, explaining why it’s worth fighting for, what points of consensus we can build upon, and what sort of sex education schools should pursue in the future.
Protecting Human Rights, Human Dignity, and the Environment: 75 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Saturday, December 9, 2023 | 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
University Hall 1050
Register: https://bit.ly/ProtectHumanRights
Free and Open to the Public, K-12 educators will receive professional development hours!
Join the New Jersey chapter of Human Rights Educators USA and Montclair State University for a special commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – a milestone achievement of collective, global commitment to human dignity.
This human rights education workshop is for K-12 teachers and anyone dedicated to social justice & environmental education.
We will investigate the relationship between human rights and the environment — because “everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person,” yet for many people these core principles are under threat due to global warming and environmental racism.
How can educators support human rights? How can we draw on current scholarship to teach about the vital importance of protecting the environment and taking positive steps to ensure social justice for marginalized communities facing threats of increasing air temperatures, rising sea levels, and more frequent wildfires and catastrophic weather events?
Sponsored by the College for Education and Engaged Learning, Human Rights Educators USA, and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.
Human Rights Education Internship
Spring Semester, 2024
Open to all Montclair State University undergraduate students
Application Link: https://bit.ly/HumanRightsIntern2024
Build your resume and get hands-on experience teaching for social justice.
Gain professional experience in Human Rights Education.
This competitive internship is open to all Montclair State undergraduate students, preference is given to upperclassmen. Interns accepted into the program must register for a three-credit course: EDFD 445 Human Rights Education, Monday and Thursday, 12:45-2:00 pm, Spring 2024.
Apply today, deadline for application: November 1, 2023
Select a human rights topic, research it, then teach it at a local K-12 school.
You may select any topic you like as long as it can be broadly understood as a human rights issue. You may focus on the US or another country, or do a comparative project. Past topics have included: Black Civil Rights, Dreamers & DACA, Environmental Justice, Antisemitism, Women’s Rights, Native American History, Refugee Crisis, AAPI History, LGBTQ+ Rights, Reproductive Rights, Food Insecurity, Religious Freedom, the Holocaust, Freedom of the Press, Religious freedom, Mental Health Care, Prejudice and Stereotyping, Food insecurity, housing insecurity, migrant crises, School segregation and inequality, School to prison pipeline, Mental health disparities, Black Lives Matter, Disability rights, etc.. You’re invited to select or create a topic that you find interesting and important. Students are encouraged to select a topic related to their future professional work, and/or a class they have already completed.
For a complete list of past topics, check out our Human Rights Lesson Plans.
Any questions, please contact Prof. Burkholder at burkholderz@montclair.edu