FPU Hosts Holocaust Discussion Panel
Feb 7, 2017
February 7, 2017
Franklin Pierce University will host a discussion panel titled, “What Anne Frank and the Holocaust Teach Us About Genocide and Genocide Comparisons” on Monday, February 13 from 3:30-5 p.m. in Spagnuolo Hall on the College at Rindge campus.
The panel will feature special guest James Waller, Ph.D., Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College, who is on sabbatical in Ireland, but made special arrangements to attend. Franklin Pierce Visiting Assistant Professor and conflict studies researcher Christina Cliff, Ph.D. will moderate and participate in the panel, and Franklin Pierce Associate Professor of Political Science and comparative politics specialist Frank Cohen, Ph.D. will join the panel, as well.
The group will discuss the Holocaust as a frame of reference for comparative genocide studies, lessons that were learned (or perhaps were not learned) from the Holocaust, and how that knowledge affects contemporary understanding and analysis of both past and present examples of genocidal events.
“We are thrilled that Dr. Waller will join us for this exciting and timely discussion,” Cliff said. “We welcome the community to attend to learn from, and contribute to, this conversation.”
Waller is also the Director of Academic Programs with the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) and an honorary visiting research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
He is frequently interviewed by broadcast and print media, including PBS, CNN, CBC, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Salon, and the New York Times. In addition to four books, Waller has published twenty-eight articles in peer-reviewed professional journals and contributed twenty chapters in edited books. His fieldwork has included research in Germany, Israel, Northern Ireland, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala.
This panel discussion will kick-off a campus-wide book discussion on Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl,” led by the Franklin Pierce English department.
Interested faculty, staff and students will be offered a free copy of the book with the opportunity to join a discussion group in late February.
A performance of "The Diary of Anne Frank" by Project Shakespeare will be held in the Boice Performing Arts Center on March 4 at 4 p.m., featuring special guest speaker and Holocaust survivor Kati Preston.
The public is welcome to attend at a fee of $10 for adults or $5 for senior citizens (students are free).
The panel discussion on February 13 is free and open to the public to attend.
