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This October, Millersville University is set to host its internationally respected Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide. The annual conference originated in the 1980s, and in recent years has been hosted every other year with related events occurring in between.
While usually held in the spring, the conference was rescheduled from last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are trying a new format this year: a conference mostly in the form of workshops for teachers,” says Dr. Tanya Kevorkian, associate professor at Millersville University’s department of history and this year’s conference coordinator.
“Sessions will feature topics such as resistance during the Holocaust and contemporary issues including the road to genocide in Burma, with a common thread of effective teaching strategies,” Kevorkian says.
Primarily addressing teachers at the middle and high school levels, the conference will feature two premier institutions, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem, which is in Jerusalem. Additionally, local educators with expertise in this area will offer sessions and workshops.
The goal for this year is to have a hybrid conference, with some in-person attendees at the Ware Center in downtown Lancaster who will be masked and socially distanced, and a larger number of remote participants.
The conference will take place Sunday, October 17 to Tuesday, October 19. While Monday and Tuesday will consist of workshops for educators, the public can attend Sunday’s lecture by Dr. Rebecca Erbelding, a senior staff member at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She will discuss America and refugees from Nazism in the 1930s.
“We are building on the strengths of the conference to date, one of the longest-standing of its kind in the U.S., which has had a mostly academic focus. We are also building on the strengths of our School of Education,” Kevorkian continues.
“It has been wonderful to work with the conference committee,” she concludes. “It includes students, community members and local teachers as well as MU faculty. Everyone on the committee has taken initiative and brought a valuable perspective.”
Attendees must register by October 15. Sessions are free, and it is possible to attend individual events. To RSVP, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/millersville-university-conference
