Fall 2024 Holocaust and Genocide Educator Workshop

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.

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 .

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.

Host or Publisher Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies