New Online Program in Genocide and Holocaust Studies at Seton Hill University
“I believe that Catholics have a special call to peace making,” says Dr. James Paharik, associate professor of sociology and director of the new program in Genocide and Holocaust Studies. “This program is something that Sr. Gemma [Del Duca, co-founder of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education and its director in Israel] and Sr. Noel [Kernan, co-founder of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education] have wanted to implement since starting the Center 20 years ago. It supports the mission of the Center and of Seton Hill, and we believe it will provide a valuable resource for teachers, professors, students –anyone interested in the causes and consequences of genocide.”
“It’s important to offer a program like this now,” says Dr. Terrance DePasquale, dean of graduate and international programs at Seton Hill. “The whole world community is trying to understand how to manage this issue.”
Genocide and Holocaust Studies at Seton Hill
Undergraduate students at Seton Hill, or other students who wish to enroll in courses at the baccalaureate level, may, beginning in the 2007 – 2008 academic year, elect to complete a minor in Genocide and Holocaust Studies. Students possessing a graduate degree or higher and interested in an online graduate degree program may elect to complete a graduate certificate in Genocide and Holocaust Studies. In either case, students will be required to complete a minimum of 15 credits from courses including: Methods for Teaching the Holocaust (designed for teachers, professors, or students studying to become teachers); Special Topics in Genocide and Holocaust Studies (a course that will have a different focus every semester, and which will be taught by top scholars in the field from around the world); Internship (for undergraduate students – provides experience working and learning at Holocaust centers or other institutions devoted to Holocaust or genocide research); Focused Research in Genocide and Holocaust Studies (provides certificate students with the opportunity to complete graduate-level research in the field of Genocide and Holocaust studies); World War II (for undergraduate students, a course that traces the rise of prewar tensions and expansionistic pressures, including in-depth discussions of the political, social and military consequences of war, with particular attention given to state violence against civilians); Christianity in Dialogue with Judaism (a study of Christianity’s origins within Judaism, its gradual separation from its ‘mother religion,’ and the return to a position of mutual respect and dialogue between the traditions since Vatican II); and Genocide in Comparative Perspective (a course that places the Holocaust and other cases of genocide in comparative historical and cultural context). For more information about Seton Hill’s new program in Genocide and Holocaust Studies (or to apply online) visit: Genocide and Holocaust Studies, or contact Christine Schaeffer, Director of Graduate and Adult Studies, at 724-838-4283 or schaeffer@setonhill.edu.
The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education (NCCHE) was established on the campus of Seton Hill University in 1987. Seton Hill initiated this national Catholic movement toward Holocaust studies in response to the urging of Pope John Paul II to recognize the significance of the Shoah, the Holocaust, and to "promote the necessary historical and religious studies on this event which concerns the whole of humanity today." The NCCHE has as its primary purpose the broad dissemination of scholarship on the root causes of anti-Semitism, its relation to the Holocaust and the implications from the Catholic perspective of both for today's world. Toward this end the Center is committed to equipping scholars, especially those at Catholic institutions, to enter into serious discussion on the causes of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; shaping appropriate curricular responses at Catholic institutions and other educational sites; sustaining Seton Hill's Catholic Institute for Holocaust Studies in Israel through a cooperative program with Yad Vashem, the Isaac Jacob Institute for Religious Law, and Hebrew University; encouraging scholarship and research through conferences, publications, workshops for educators, and similar activities; sponsoring local events on the Holocaust and related topics in the University and the community; and enhancing Catholic-Jewish relations. In 2007, the Center’s co-founder Sr. Gemma Del Duca, received the Excellence in Holocaust Education award from Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Authority, for her work with the Center and its Catholic Institute for Holocaust Studies in Israel.
Seton Hill University, founded by the Sisters of Charity, is a coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Chartered in 1918, Seton Hill offers more than 30 undergraduate programs and nine graduate programs, including an MBA. Seton Hill brings the world to its students through its distinguished lecturers and nationally and internationally renowned centers. Recognized three times by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the nation’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Universities, Seton Hill has also been named a Best Baccalaureate College by U.S. News & World Report, one of the Best in the Northeast by The Princeton Review, and one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 Businesses by Pennsylvania Business Central. In addition, Seton Hill has been named a University of Distinction by Colleges of Distinction, an organization founded by a group of concerned parents, educators and admissions professionals. For more information on Seton Hill please visit www.setonhill.edu or call 1-800-826-6234.
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Media Contact:
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