Holocaust and Genocide Educator Workshops

The Center organizes daylong pedagogical workshops, in most semesters, for teachers and other educators who have taken on the weighty responsibility to instruct students and the public in the history of the Holocaust and genocide. The format and theme will vary from semester to semester. While we require advanced registration, we offer our workshops without charge as a service to the regional community and to the future. Professional development credits are available.

Click here for the curriculum developed by the NJ Commission on Holocaust Education

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Fall 2024 Holocaust and Genocide Educator Workshop

Indigenous History & American History Textbook Project

Wednesday, December 11
8:30 am – 3:00 pm at Ramapo College of New Jersey

This workshop is free-of-charge to all educators in our region.
Breakfast, lunch, and refreshments will be served.
Professional development credits available.

Attendance is limited to 60 participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
We will operate a waiting list.

Reserve Your Space here

American History Textbook Project

Facilitators: Christina Conner, Heather Lutz, and Steve Rice

The American History Textbook Project (AHTP) was started in 2009 in order to collect American history textbooks for use by Ramapo College students. The collection has grown to over 300 volumes published in every decade from the 1820s to the present. It contains materials intended for high school and elementary school students, homeschool students, and students attending private religious schools, and it includes state-specific editions and teacher editions. The purpose of AHTP is to allow researchers to explore how the treatment of topics and events discussed in these common curricular resources has changed over time, and to consider the impact that change may have had. The full collection is housed in the Special Collections Reading Room at the Ramapo College Potter Library. A complementary digital collection is also available to researchers at https://libguides.ramapo.edu/digitalAHTP. 

Current debates around teaching history demand that teachers get creative in how curricular materials (such as textbooks) are used to teach historical truths. One of the foremost challenges in social studies education is overcoming the danger of a single narrative. History is not one set of facts — it is an argument. Introducing historiography to high school students conforms with the inquiry-based C3 Framework for social studies, particularly Dimension 3: “Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence.”

Much like primary source analysis, we would expect students to question a historical interpretation being presented through a secondary source. As with any piece of historical writing, textbook narratives are ultimately shaped by the times in which they are written and through the perspectives of those doing the writing. What voices are included, and who gets crowded out, are of significant consequence to the curriculum in social studies classes all across the country.

In this session, participants will be presented with specific lessons and strategies that can be used to introduce their students to historiography, and generate debate around evolving/conflicting historical narratives through Ramapo College’s American History Textbook Project.  

Participant experience: First, the presenter will share the current research and philosophy around introducing high school students to historiography, followed by an introduction to the American History Textbook Project at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Participants will be invited to share their experiences with textbooks in the classroom: their power, limitations, uses, and abuses in developing historical understanding. 

In the second portion of the session, attendees will actively participate by analyzing four example textbook excerpts (covering the time period from pre-Civil War through the twenty-first century). For the purposes of brevity, the focus of these textbooks will be the changing narratives around American slavery, although attendees will be able to see other possibilities for using the textbooks: for example, changing narratives regarding race, gender, class, and citizenship status. 

The session will end with a discussion of how textbooks can be leveraged as tools for teaching both content and historiography to students. Participants will be invited to share their reactions to the changing narratives around slavery and what impressions this might have on student learners.

Discussing the Genocide of Native Americans with Dr. Sarah Koenig

Facilitators: Jacob Ari Labendz and Colleen Tambuscio

Over the past decade, historians have increasingly explored whether, and to what extent, the United States’ treatment of Native Americans constitutes genocide. This debate is not just a matter of semantics; it calls into question established narratives about the American past and raises questions the United States’ obligations toward contemporary Native American nations. This talk and forum explores how teachers can use this new scholarship to foster historical thinking, spark discussions about ethics and memory, and facilitate connections between curricula on Native American history and the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights. Professor Sarah Koenig will provide an overview of the academic debate on genocide of Native Americans and why it matters for teaching Native history, highlight primary sources and other classroom materials that teachers can use to introduce these debates to students, and lead a discussion about the current curriculum in Native American history and how it can be envisioned for the future. Special attention will be paid to how to incorporate the history of New Jersey’s state-recognized tribes and the upcoming 250 year anniversary of the American Revolution.

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Welcome Colleen Tambusico
Pedagogy Programs Administrator

As Pedagogy Programs Administrator, Colleen Tambuscio will oversee the expansion of the services that we provide to schools and educators in our region. She will:

• Facilitate our semesterly Holocaust and Genocide Educator Workshops
• Hold roundtable discussions with local educators
• Visit schools to provide specially tailored programs for faculty and students
• Help us develop a certificate program for teachers (and others) who want to expand their knowledge and capacity to teach the Holocaust and genocide

To contact Colleen to explore how we can work together, email ctambusc@ramapo.edu

Colleen Tambuscio comes to Ramapo with thirty-eight years of teaching experience. She began her career teaching the deaf for Bergen County Special Services and first taught Holocaust education to her deaf students for seventeen years. She continued her career at New Milford High School in Bergen County, New Jersey for 22 years. During her teaching career, she developed a semester-long Holocaust course and annually travelled to the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for a two-day seminar with students.  Since 1998, she has taken students to Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland to study the Holocaust accomplishing twenty-one student trips.

In 1998, Colleen was named as a Mandel Fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (currently Museum Teacher Fellow) and has served as a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Regional Museum Educator since 2002. Since 2002, Colleen has been a board member of the RCNJ Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education. Colleen earned an MA in Jewish-Christian Studies and Holocaust Education from Seton Hall University in 2006.  In 2010, she traveled to Nahariya, Israel with the UJA Federation’s Partnership 2000 Program to develop a dialogue between Israeli and her own public high school students. She is the founder and President of the New Jersey Council of Holocaust Educators, a national professional-development organization for educators interested in teaching the Holocaust and genocide.  In 2015, Colleen worked with Alexandra Zapruder, author of Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, to create a multimedia edition of the book and lessons associated with the diaries which are housed on the Facing History and Ourselves website. Colleen was honored by Princeton University in 2017 as a Distinguished New Jersey Secondary Teacher. In October of 2021, she was appointed by Governor Murphy to the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.

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Collaboration with Regional Schools

If you are interested in working with the Center, please email holgen@ramapo.edu.

Educator Roundtable: Teaching the Holocaust and Genocide
The Holocaust and Genocide Education Roundtable will develop a cohort of specially selected educators dedicated to teaching about the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights in our region. Educators will be invited to participate in three 150-minute meetings over the course of the school year. We aim to facilitate discussions of best practices and resource sharing. Teachers will have the opportunity to identify, and to  discuss real-world challenges, concerns, and visions. The CHGS will provide tailored feedback and support to assist educators in improving the education in their classrooms, schools, and districts. We look forward to including teachers from the eleven school districts that have partnered with the RCNJ Teacher Education Program.

Building Virtual Exhibits / Exploring Digital Humanities in Video Games
Video game technology is the foundation of many experiences today and in the future. Students that have grown up with video games have developed a unique skillset that empowers them to create content and experiences accessible to millions of people worldwide. Join this hands-on workshop to learn how video game platforms like Fortnite can be used by students to produce digital humanities experiences. Experts from Cleverlike Studios will guide educators through free online learning content published by Epic Games specifically for secondary and post-secondary educators. No gaming experience required. Cosponsored by the Digital Humanities Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Ramapo College.

Survivor Story Maps with Beth Haverim Shir Shalom
The Center and our intern, Maddie Zech, worked with the Religious School at Congregation Beth Haverim Shir Shalom in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. We adapted the Story Map project that Center Director Dr. Jacob Labendz developed for the students in his Fall 2022 course on the history of the Holocaust. That project culminated with a moving presentation at Congregation Beth Haverim Shir Shalom, which deepened our strong ties to that community. This program, similarly, culminated in a presentation by BHSS students at Ramapo College

Thanks to the success of our 2023-2024 project and to the assistance of our intern, Bella Apgar, we are currently running it again with a new cohort of students at BHSS.

Survivors of the 1994 Genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda at Mahwah High School

Providence Umugwaneza and Erick Nkurunziza will speak to MHS students about their lives before, during, and after the genocide, which took place 30 years ago.

Individualized Pedagogy Workshop for Ramapo Indian Hills High School

The Center offered a pedagogy workshop for the teachers of Ramapo Indian Hills High School on January 8, 2024.

Antisemitism and Islamophobia Discussion for the Academy of the Holy Angels

The Center provided a panel discussion on Antisemitism and Islamophobia, featuring GC Director Dr. Labendz and Asad Dandia, for the Academy of the Holy Angels in Bergen County on March 14, 2024.

 

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Past Educator Workshops

Educator Workshop, Spring 2024

“Teaching and Exploring the Holocaust through Graphic Novels”

This workshop introduced teachers to the wealth of graphic novels that can be used to teach the history of the Holocaust, and to methodologies for employing them productively in class. Dr. Jessica Carr of Lafayette College led a fascinating discussion on the topic, which was followed by a pedagogy workshop with Colleen Tambuscio and Heather Lutz.

Special Workshop Series (2023-2024)

“The 1994 Genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda”

This April will mark the thirtieth remembrance of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda. To assist educators in teaching about this tragedy, the Center at Ramapo College and the Holocaust Resource Center at Kean University have co-organized a three-part seminar series to be conducted virtually.

Educator Workshop, Fall 2023

“Why Study the Holocaust Now?”

This is an inquiry becoming more pressing by the day. From the pervasiveness of book bans to the polarization of ideologies, from the current surge in antisemitic rhetoric to the propagation of misinformation and disinformation, it is clear that the present is a palimpsest of the past, one still susceptible to the dangers of discrimination, prejudice, and genocide. Our workshop, led by master educators Colleen Tambuscio and Heather Lutz, guided teachers through some of these profound issues, offering context, resources, lessons, and time for reflection with the aim not only to familiarize ourselves with one or more of these topics but also to converse about them in a collegial, collaborative setting. We benefited from an insightful and inspiring lecture by Dr. Davis Austin Walsh (Yale).

Resources from the workshop may be found here.

Educator Workshop, Spring 2023

“Entering Auschwitz and Approaching its Artifacts: A Virtual Tour and Discussion”

In the morning, Dr. Jerzy Wójcik—born in the town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz), Poland—took us on a personalized, virtual tour of Auschwitz. Heather Lutz and Colleen Tambuscio (Center Advisory Board) designed and led an afternoon workshop focused on strategies for teaching about the Holocaust and genocide through artifacts and featuring publicly available resources which can be integrated into the classroom without charge.