May 24, 2018 Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Dr. Robert Ventresca, Associate Professor of History at King’s, explored avenues for research, teaching and the ethical contributions of Holocaust Studies looking forward to the next 25 years at a two-day symposium.

Dr. Ventresca’s panel discussion how research and teaching about the history of human rights abuses and mass atrocity in the Holocaust era can and should inform present-day humanitarian challenges.  

This theme aligns with a new course that will be offered at King’s in fall of 2018 on the topic “Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocity” (HIST 3809F). Dr. Ventresca will teach this new course. In it, students will explore, among other themes, how the history of the Holocaust can help us to put current humanitarian crises around the world in a proper context to be able to consider what practical policy options might be pursued by governments as well as non-state actors in civil society to prevent or stop mass atrocities.  This is a different kind of history course; one that will get students to appreciate how indispensable historical knowledge and the tools of historical thinking are for understanding and advocacy on the pressing humanitarian issues of our day. 

The symposium was organized as part of the Museum's 25th anniversary and brought together leading scholars from various fields in Holocaust Studies y. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. held this symposium on the ethical challenges of Holocaust studies May 7-8, 2018.

Dr. Ventresca is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. 

At King’s, he will teach History 1404E: The Totalitarian Age, History 1812G: Revolutions in World History and History 3809F: History, Ethics and Public Policy during the 2018-2019 academic year.  

Watch a short video about Dr. Ventresca.