Holocaust education, and genocide education more broadly, is an area in which humanities scholars and scholarship can make important contributions to civic education. While many US states include the Holocaust and other genocides in their history and social studies standards, there are relatively few resources for high school teachers to teach these atrocities in a way that is sensitive to the historical particularities of each genocide and provides their students with a meaningful comparative framework.

Ideas of the human—of what humanity is and what it can be—have long been bound up with narratives of progress.

The universal human, defined by reason, was at the core of the Enlightenment project. In the 20th century, projects of global development ushered in new figures of the human as the subject of universal rights and agent of economic transformation. The 21st century has, in turn, ushered in a figure of humanity as author of the Anthropocene and the subject of its own projects of technoscientific transformation—biological, cognitive and social.

Shaping tomorrow, today, requires path-breaking, creative solutions

That challenge has never been more critical than it is today, as an alarming “syndemic” of intersecting crises—the coronavirus pandemic, racial injustice and accompanying civil unrest, and cascading environmental hazards—destabilize social systems and threaten human survival across the planet. This is a pivotal time for educational institutions to re-envision their roles and priorities.

Science and technology need the arts and humanities

If we hope to achieve the global will and cooperation needed to meet the challenges of the climate crisis, we need stories of hope and transformation, not just disaster and deprivation. These stories should be rooted both in local realities and scientific insights. If we can inspire communities around the world to imagine their own positive climate futures, we can begin to imagine and undertake the work necessary to rebuild our economies and cultures on more sustainable foundations.

Enjoy free yoga for the whole family!

Invite healthy fun into your home. Tune in for free Zoom yoga classes designed with young yogis in mind. Classes will be easy to follow for all ages and cover concepts like healthy stretching and mindful breathing. No materials are needed to participate, but comfortable clothing and a yoga mat are recommended. Yoga instruction will last 45 minutes.

Subscribe to Lectures & Educational Programs