This course will introduce students to the concepts of public memory, public forgetting, and the role of museums and memorialization in preserving memory of the Holocaust. This class will cover early challenges to Holocaust memorialization in Europe, the advocacy that brought museum work to the forefront of preserving public memory, and the particularly American response to Holocaust museums in a transnational comparison of museum studies. Students will learn the foundational theory of the importance of museums for preservation and remembrance, gain an understanding of the role and function of public memory of genocide in a society, and learn how museum studies of the Holocaust have changed over different times and places. The course will also include interaction with the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center, as well as engagement with that museum's history, mission, and educational supplements.

Note: Master's students should register for HGS 567. Doctoral students should register for HGS 767.