Hank Knight

Our own Hank Knight, director of the Cohen Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, was the featured speaker at the Monadnock Summer Lyceum on Sunday, August 15. The Unitarian Church in Peterborough has hosted this lecture series, which “features prominent speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines who discuss topics of importance to our times,” since 1970.

Dr. Knight’s talk was entitled “Ties that Bind,” and focused on those attitudes and beliefs in our lives that bind us to life and shape our relationships with others. If you missed his insightful lecture, you can hear it on New Hampshire Public Radio’s website. It will probably be posted sometime after Aug. 22.

Susan Herman, KSC professor emerita of management

OBTS: the Teaching Society for Management Educators,  an organization “dedicated to innovative teaching and learning in the organizational and management sciences,” recently named its Distinguished Service Award for Susan Herman, KSC professor emerita of management, who died last year in June.

In 2006, Prof. Herman received the OBTS award, which will now be known as the Susan J. Herman Distinguished Service Award.

Joan Weiner, Chair of the OBTS Awards Committee, said that “as new people come into the organization, Susan’s story will continue to celebrate her life as well as share the values represented in the Award.”

Prof. Herman leaves quite a legacy and looms large and dear in the memories of those who knew her. The Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies here at KSC established the Susan J. Herman Award for Leadership in Holocaust & Genocide Awareness last year.

Dr. James E. Waller, Cohen Chair for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Dr. James E. Waller has been appointed Cohen Chair for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the first endowed professorship at Keene State College. He’ll be on board for the Fall 2010 semester.

Dr. Waller earned his Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Kentucky and comes to us from Spokane, Washington, where he was professor of psychology at Whitworth University from 1988, holding the rotating Edward B. Lindamann Chair during 2003–07. He received Whitworth’s award for Outstanding Junior Faculty Achievement in Teaching and Research in 1993 and the Teaching Excellence Award in 1996. His book, Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing, now in its second edition with Oxford University Press, is a standard text for students of genocide throughout the United States.

Professor Waller will play a significant role in Keene State College’s new baccalaureate program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, offering key courses in genocide and comparative genocide. Active both nationally and internationally in Holocaust and genocide studies, he has held fellowships with the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies in Washington, DC, and is an instructor for the Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention at the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

Gerda Weissmann Klein (Mark Corliss photo)

Gerda Weissmann Klein, Holocaust survivor; author of All But My Life (her autobiography), The Hours After, and Promise of a New Spring: the Holocaust and Renewal (a children’s book); and subject of the 1996 Academy Award-winning documentary, One Survivor Remembers (watch her acceptance speech), packed the Mabel Brown Room with a standing-room-only crowd on Monday night, Sept. 21, when she delivered this year’s Holocaust Memorial Lecture. Her powerful and inspiring story stirred her audience, which included KSC students, faculty, and staff; members of the local community; and students and their teachers from several area middle and high schools.

Though Mrs. Klein grew tired after speaking for over an hour, she displayed a remarkable graciousness as she praised teachers for the hope and leadership they provide for the future signed books carried by a long line of people, including many young students.

Have you seen Gerda Weissmann Klein? Use the “comments” link below to tell us your impressions of her moving story.

Gerda Weissmann Klein speaks to a standing-room-only crowd in the Mable Brown Room. (Tom White photo)

Dr. Susan Herman (photo by Mark Corliss)

We are saddened to learn that Dr. Susan Herman, professor emerita of Management, passed away early this morning, June 24th. Dr. Herman was an energetic and engaged teacher, professional, traveler, outdoorswoman, and cook. The KSC Human Resources office uses her 1994 book, Hiring Right, as a sound basis for the College’s recruiting protocols. Dr. Herman was also an important catalyst in the evolution of the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies, which established the Susan J. Herman Award for Leadership in Holocaust & Genocide Awareness this past April to honor her vital contributions to its work.

Dr. Paul Vincent, professor of Holocaust studies and history, mentioned a meeting with Dr. Herman in early spring, when she was still undergoing tests for pancreatic cancer in Boston. He recalled a statement she made that summed up the strength of her character: “You know, Paul, I want to live. But if that’s not to be, I’ve had a wonderful life.”

“The world is a dimmer place without the magic of her life,” Dr. Vincent said.

For a wealth of photos and information from Susan and her family, including notification of upcoming memorial services in Dorchester, Mass., and Keene, visit her Caring Bridges web pages.

If you remember this warm and wonderful teacher, please use the “comments” link below to let us know, and visit the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies blog to leave and read memories.

Three Keene State College students, an eighth grader from Monadnock Regional High School, and a storyteller from Shelburne Falls, Mass., received awards at the 12th Annual Hildebrandt Holocaust Studies Awards Program on Monday, April 20.

Courtesy photo; 2009 Hildebrandt Award winners (left to right): Hannah Bush, David Arfa, and Meagan Blais.

Hannah Bush, eighth grader at Monadnock Regional Middle School, received the $300 Community School Award for her original song, “Be a Witness.”

David Arfa, from Shelburne Falls, Mass., received the $300 Community Member Award for his storytelling entry, “The Jar of Tears,” based on the life of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapiro, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Meagan Blais, a KSC Junior enrolled in Keene State’s new Holocaust and Genocide Studies major, received a $500 award for her personal essay, “Inheriting the Holocaust.”

KSC students Jessica Howard and Becky Midler shared a $500 award for “Unearthed Sense,” an original dance that they choreographed and performed.

More information.

KSC will now offer a baccalaureate degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The curriculum combines historical study with an interdisciplinary exploration of the Holocaust and other genocidal events and incorporates such disciplines as film, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, religious studies, and women’s studies. The major is currently accepting students for the 2009–10 academic year.

More information.