Courses

The foundation of the Holocaust Studies Program at The University of Texas at Dallas is the curriculum offered by the School of Arts and Humanities on the Shoah. Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth, the interdisciplinary structure of the program affords students the opportunity to design their degree plans and undertake subsequent research on the Holocaust from the historical, political, religious, philosophical, socio-cultural, or artistic perspectives. This wide-ranging approach furnishes students with a broad base from which they are able to build their Master's Portfolio and Dissertations in the field of Holocaust Studies.

HUMA 6300: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Arts and Humanities
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
The seminar will introduce students to some of the basic concepts of the humanities and interdisciplinary studies by investigation the nature of metropolitan cities. The modern city is by its very nature a multifaceted social space. Berlin, London, Paris, New York, and Chicago will provide our primary examples. We will read a wide range of writers, including sociologists, geographers, historians, and poets and will discuss representations of the city in art and film.
Students will be introduced to the study of the city in a wide interdisciplinary manner through a discussion of textual and visual sources. Students will further their ability to critically review scholarly literature and interpret sources from various perspectives.

HUHI 6313 : The German Mind: From Lessing to Nietzsche
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
Literary history has only rarely experienced such concentration of emotional and intellectual energies as those manifesting themselves in Germany between 1750-1875. In fact, this powerful artistic output appears to be on such scale and of such stature that it must be discussed on terms comparable to those of the Attic tragedy. To study it also means to explore the cultural forces that have at once appropriated the rich lineage of the European tradition and anticipated most major artistic movements of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Our course will focus on the writings of such dramatists, writers, and poets as Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Hülderlin, Novalis, Eichendorff, Graf von Platen, Heine, and Büchner, and explore the works of such philosophers as Kant, Winckelmann, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche.
Students will read and learn to analyze the texts of the works we’ll discuss in the class; and they will consider the philosophical, historical, and aesthetic background out of which these texts spring. Studying the structures and artistic expressions of these classical art pieces in the context of the historical development and aesthetic concepts of 18th-early 19th century Germany, students will understand, and put in the context of, some of the major aesthetic theories, and the political and moral changes of this time, influencing the intellectual, historical developments of the 20th-century. 

HUHI 6320: History and Memorialization
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
This course will study the social, political, and cultural contexts out of which the Holocaust, the mass murder of the European Jews, arose. In addition, it will consider both a wide range of historical interpretations of, and a variety of artistic responses to, this destruction process. That is, examining the historical realities and the latest historiography, including some of the major artistic creations memorializing the Shoah, our course will ponder questions that focus on the ways in which remembrance of this event is part of a new, evolving public recollection and a major force to reverse the “erosion of memory the passage of time” might create.  
Students will consider various approaches of understanding and explicating the Holocaust, including some of its ethical, aesthetic, and historical representations.  They will analyze the impact and pressures this trauma has imposed on some major artists and philosophers of the time and on our historical representations.

HUHI 6325: Post-Holocaust Thought
Taught by Dr. David Patterson
In this course the term Holocaust is taken to mean the systematic extermination of the Jews undertaken by Nazi Germany and its allies. The course examines a variety of primary and secondary texts to explore the impact of the Holocaust on theological, philosophical, and postmodern thought in the aftermath of Auschwitz. Of particular interest is the impact of the
Holocaust on Jewish identity, Christian theology, and philosophy’s ability—or inability—to respond to the event. Topics to be explored include the ramifications of the Holocaust for an understanding of the meaning of humanity, the nature of good and evil, the foundations of civilization, and the future of thought.
The ultimate aim of the course is to arrive at a deeper understanding of the philosophical and theological views of God and humanity, good and evil, and the meaning and value of the human being in the aftermath of Auschwitz.

HUHI 6325: Studies on Anti-Semitism
Taught by Dr. David Patterson
This course examines a variety of primary and secondary texts that cut across several disciplines to examine the millennial phenomenon of anti-Semitism. Exploring the history, causes, and essence of Jew hatred, the course delves into its philosophical, theological, ideological, political, and social aspects. The fundamental question to be examined in this course is: What is the anti-Semite anti? Or: Why the Jews?
The ultimate aim of the course is to arrive at a deeper understanding of the essence of Jew hatred as it appears among very diverse peoples and cultures ranging from ancient Greeks to modern intellectuals, from Saint Augustine to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, from Karl Marx to Adolf Hitler.

HUHI 6325: Moving Pictures in Jewish Culture
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
This course examines the role of Jews in the movie industry. We will watch and discuss movies from the silent era to contemporary Hollywood production to engage some of the main themes in 20th century modern Jewish history. We will in particular pay attention to movies that document and discuss interwar Jewish cultures, the Holocaust, Zionism, Israel, and the place of Judaism in American culture.
Students will be introduced to studying films in a wide interdisciplinary manner. We will discuss Jews’ position at both the cultural centers and the social margins of modernity and analyze the functions that representations of ‘the Jew’ also assumed for non-Jewish authors. Students will strengthen their ability to critically review scholarly literature and interpret sources from various perspectives.

HUHI 6327: Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
The course discusses Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan as songwriters, performers and artists. Readings will include lyrics, interviews, poetry collections, and novels. In addition to textual sources, we will also investigate various documentaries and performances from an interdisciplinary perspective. Our discussions will focus on gender, sexuality, politics, rebellion, the media, celebrity and popular culture, the religious quest and other searches for meaning. The course aims to further students’ abilities to critically review scholarly literature and interpret sources from various perspectives.

HUHI 6334: Exploring Urban Cultures
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
This seminar focuses on the European metropolitan cities Berlin, Paris, and London from the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Each of these cities was at once the important center of population, economic and cultural life of its respective country, as well as an imperial hub for the exchange of goods, ideas, and peoples from across the world.
The seminar will explore issues of urban renewal and planning, space, class, and migration. Key factors we will look at are social class, gender, ethnicity, consumer culture, urban tourism, crime, and the representation of the city in literature, art, and film. Course readings include Walter Benjamin, Christopher Isherwood, George Orwell, Joseph Roth, and Emile Zola.

HUHI 6335: Modern Jewish Thought
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
This course examines modern and contemporary Jewish thought. In moving, roughly chronologically, we will examine how Jewish philosophers understand the relationship between Judaism and philosophy, and how they make the distinction or conjunction of these two entities or terms productive for their thoughts. Readings will include texts by Moses Mendelssohn, Abraham Geiger, Martin, Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Siegmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem, Emanual Levinas, and Jacques Derrida.

HUHI 6336: Modernity, Culture, and the Jews
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
This course examines the role of Jews in the creation of modern cultures. Jews ‘contributions to modern arts and sciences have always intrigued commentators not in the least in light of the disproportionate impact Jews made upon the non-Jewish world. The course will be grounded in recent literature on diaspora cultures, transnationalism and border crossing, and will view Jewish participation in modern culture as an area of interaction, exchange and encounter. Readings amongst others will include Mathew Arnold, T. S. Elliot, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Sigmund Freud, Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin and artists like Max Liebermann, Max Weber, and Marc Chagall.
Students will be introduced to the issue of influence and difference in a wide interdisciplinary manner through a discussion of textual and visual sources. We will discuss Jews’ position at both the cultural centers and the social margins of modernity and analyze the functions that representations of ‘the Jew’ also assumed for non-Jewish authors. Students will further their ability to critically review scholarly literature and interpret sources from various perspectives.

HUHI 6338: History of the Holocaust
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
The Holocaust, the annihilation of six million Jews under the Nazis, looms large in our twenty-first-century consciousness. It involves both a monumental assault against millions of defenseless people and a brutally imposed process of dying, which reduced the victims into matter while they were still alive. It also involves the destruction of the age-old Eastern European Jewish culture. Although the mass killing stopped after the Third Reich was defeated, this destruction process has not ceased to put pressure on our contemporary world and cast a shadow on the modern Western consciousness. Challenging our fundamental assumptions and values, it raises questions of enormous significance: "How was it possible for a state, a product of Western civilization, to systematize, mechanize, and socially organize the Holocaust?" "How could the Nazis in 12 short years unhinge the basic structure of Western civilization?" And "How could European societies, including their moral and academic institutions, fail to protest against and defeat Nazi ideology?"
This course will search for answers to these questions and raise many others. It will locate and study the roots of the "Final Solution" by analyzing the shapes and forms of some of the early persecutions of the Jews. Using a wide-ranging interdisciplinary approach, including films and works of art, it will ponder the circumstances and causes of the Holocaust and consider the psychological, social, moral, theological, and aesthetic dilemmas it has continued to raise.
The course will provide an excellent background for teachers in this field. Those interested in obtaining a certificate in Holocaust Studies and develop a curriculum and courses on the Holocaust will be able to arrange special tutorial sessions for this purpose with the instructor. Also, they will be encouraged to contact and get acquainted with the work of the Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies.

HUHI 6338: The Holocaust
Taught by Dr. David Patterson
In this course we shall take an interdisciplinary approach to one of the most problematic events of human history: the Holocaust. The purpose of examining this topic is not simply to gather information or to arrive at some explanation; nor is it to be overcome with despair or anger or outrage. The aim, rather, is to address the questions of good and evil, of divinity and humanity, of truth and responsibility that arise from this event, so that we may better understand its singular significance for human life. With the approval of the instructor, students may write on any topic, but all research topics should integrate a variety of academic disciplines as they pertain to the Holocaust.

HUHI 6395: Fashion Industry and Dallas
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
To this day, Kenneth Cole, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Isaac Mizrahi, and Diane von Fürstenberg are widely recognized as major designers and labels next to the dominating role Macy’s and other department stores have played in Americans’ pursuit of happiness. In Dallas, the Sangers, Zales, and Neiman Marcus have had a major role in the consumer and fashion industry. The course seeks to introduce students to the study, methods and theories of consumer culture, and its history in Europe and America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The theoretical and historical introduction will place our detailed investigation of the consumer culture and fashion industry in Dallas into a wider historical context.
We will discuss Jews’ position at both the cultural centers and the social margins of modern culture and consider in particular Stanley Marcus as a pioneer in consumer culture and the fashion industry. Students will be introduced into the archival collection at SMU and the Jewish Historical Society to promote original research.

HUSL 6360: Genres of Holocaust Literature: Memoirs
Taught by Dr. David Patterson
This course consists of a thorough examination of the Holocaust memoir as a genre of Holocaust literature. The course explores the issue of the recovery of life through the literary genre of memoir, the function of memory, what the memoir reveals and conceals about the Holocaust, how the Holocaust memoir differs from other memoirs as a literary genre, and other issues. The questions raised will be based on an interdisciplinary approach, combing the disciplines of literature, history, philosophy, and religion where appropriate. Questions to be addressed include: What do the memoirs reveal about the essence of the Holocaust? What do they teach about an understanding of humanity? And what response do they summon from the reader? The instructional format is lecture with substantial discussion.
The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the psychological, philosophical, historical, and religious issues confronting Holocaust survivors who take up the task of bearing witness to what befell them in the concentrationary universe. Topics addressed will include the function of memory, the question of what the memoirs reveal about the nature of the Holocaust, and the implications for those who encounter—or collide with—these texts.

HUSL 6370: Between Tradition and Modernity: The Literature of Weimar Germany
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
This course will examine some of the most significant literary works written in the period of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933). In addition, it will pay attention to the cultural-political forces that shaped the artistic imagination of the time and to the formative influences that proceeded this era. We will undertake this study by relying mostly on primary sources, such as novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, confessions, and statements of creative writers, artists, and critics of art. This approach will allow us to gain insight into the artistic and intellectual achievement that characterized the literature and culture of the Weimar Republic, into the cultural and intellectual tensions and transitions making themselves felt in Germany before and during World War I, and into the disillusionment following the war, including the polarization of the country’s culture and the major social, political, and ideological upheavals during the 1920s and early 1930s.
Students will consider the political and cultural conditions in Weimar Germany and will analyze orally as well as in writing one or two of the historical events or some of the major art works or novels of the period.

HUSL 6372: Modern Jewish Literatures Across Cultures
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
This course introduces and explores modern Jewish literatures in multiple national contexts and languages. We will investigate the interaction between modernity and vision of Jewish identities and traditions. Our discussion will be structured around close readings of texts and will focus on the relation between history and literature, language and identity, aesthetics and ideology, and debates about Jewish literature, its scope, nature, and character. Texts included in this course cover a broad range of literary styles and periods from the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth centuries. Readings will include, amongst others, Heinrich Heine, Grace Aguilar, Israel Zangwill, Arthur Schnitzler, Hayim Bialik, Shalom Aleichem, Shmuel Agnon, Isaac Babel, Philip Roth, and Cynthia Ozick.
Students will be introduced to variety of styles and genres of modern Jewish literatures in translations from different historical and geographical contexts. They will gain an understanding of the contours of the modern Jewish experience through the prism of literature. They will further their ability to critically review scholarly literature and interpret literary texts from various perspectives.

HUSL 6375: German Literature and Ideas 1870-1960
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
This course will focus on the unique range and diversity of German-Austrian literature and thought from the end of the nineteenth-century until the 1960s. It will locate the beginnings of the radical changes Nietzsche’s ideas created and their influence on the early Expressionist movement. In addition, it will examine some of the major works of the pre-and post-WWI era and consider the political trends and upheavals which shaped and warped this brilliantly creative artistic period. Exploring works composed in Germany just before the rise of the Third Reich and works produced by some of the German artists in exile, we also will consider the creative output of the generation of poets and writers coming of age in the post-World War II period, capturing in shattering words the new reality of loss, betrayal, and anguish.

HUSL 6378: The Holocaust in Literature
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
The enormous pressure the Holocaust exerts on our contemporary world manifests itself in a variety of ways, among them, in our persistent efforts to evoke, define, and explain this cataclysmic event and to incorporate it into our creative imagination. Besides ongoing evaluation and re-evaluation of the Shoah in the fields of historical research, moral philosophy, and social studies, there is a massive body of literature and art that has arisen in its wake, ranging from eyewitness accounts to novels, short stories, and poetry; from music to painting, sculpture, and film. The purpose of this seminar is to consider some of these artistic endeavors and the psychological, moral, and aesthetic tensions the Holocaust has imposed upon our contemporary consciousness. In addition, we will asses the role it plays in the late twentieth-century early twenty-first-century literary imagination. We will study a number of texts revolving around this event and consider not only their radically new aesthetic devices but also their portrayals of evil and moral survival. In addition, it will explore a wide-ranging set of critical responses the literature of the Holocaust has engendered.
Students will analyze the background and the history of the Holocaust. In addition, they will consider the philosophical, moral, and aesthetic responses this calamitous event has engendered. Studying some of the most dramatic and beautiful texts of our time, they will also explore the issues and conflicts that arose among the creators and interpreters of the “literature of atrocity.”

HUSL 7309: Yiddish Literature
Taught by Dr. David Patterson
Concentrating on fictional narratives in English translation, this course examines Yiddish literature from its flowering in the nineteenth century to its demise in the twentieth century. Of particular interest are the ways in which Yiddish literature reflects and responds to the social, cultural, political, and religious aspects of Jewish life as it unfolds in Eastern Europe, as well as in North America. The texts include selections from Chasidism, the Jewish Enlightenment, and Yiddish Modernism, as the course traces the development of a major literary tradition that was obliterated with the destruction of European Jewish civilization in the Holocaust. The purpose of the course is to impart to students an understanding of the Yiddish literary tradition and how that tradition reflects Jewish history, Jewish teachings, and the tensions that shape both.
The ultimate aim of the course is to arrive at a deeper understanding of the themes that run throughout Yiddish literature and the Jewish life reflected in that literature, so that student may have an appreciation of this tradition that was obliterated in the Holocaust.

HUSL 7379: European Romanticism
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
The purpose of this course is two-fold: to trace the origins and development of the Romantic Movement and explore its central issues, shaping much of nineteenth-and twentieth-century art and thought. We will examine the ideas of some of the major Romantic thinkers, writers, poets, and artists, studying their vision of the human imagination, their concepts of the arts, dreams, passion, and the subconscious; and we will explore their battles against the Enlightenment, with its established rules in the realm of the factual, objective, and the universal. Analyzing the culmination and legacy of this movement in philosophy and literature, we will also study the historical-cultural context out of which our readings sprang and explore their authors’ soaring ideas and new artistic approaches.

Undergraduate Courses

HUMA 3300: Reading and Writing Texts
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
This course highlights central issues in medieval, early modern and modern Jewish and general history through the lens of the Ghetto and its changing meaning. Course themes include the establishment of and liberation from the Ghetto, and the history of Eastern European Jewish urban centers in Europe and America. We will also examine the place of Ghettos in the Holocaust, as well as remembrance of the Ghetto after the Holocaust. Moreover, we will explore basic concepts of the humanities and interdisciplinary studies by discussion also literary and visual representations of the Ghetto in European and American literature and film.

HIST 4330: The Holocaust
Taught by Dr. Debbie Pfister
Between 1933 and 1945, the Third Reich swept across Europe declaring war on the Jewish communities in every country they occupied during their 12 year reign of terror. As they imposed their death sentence on millions of people by shooting, gassing, and starvation, the Nazis committed atrocities which challenge our ideas about the basic concepts of progress, enlightenment, morality, and freedom. These crimes confront the foundation of Western culture and continue to impact thought in the twenty first century.
Exploring the historical framework which gave rise to Nazism, it is the purpose of this class to examine the social, political, historical, and cultural contexts in which the Holocaust took place. Constructing our inquiry around two major questions: why did this mass murder happen and how did it run its course, we will study the development and background of ancient religious anti-Semitism, as well as the emergence of nationalism and scientific racism in nineteenth-century Europe. In addition, we will consider the emergence of the modern German state, the First World War, the Depression, Hitler’s creation of the Third Reich, the anti-Jewish laws, the persecution of the European Jews, the implementation of the Holocaust in every country occupied by the Reich, and the moral implications of the mass murder of this group of people. We will also study the ways in which the Holocaust has continued to affect our religious beliefs, our sense of morality, and our notions about government and education, now, and for future generations.

HIST 4331: The Holocaust and Representation
Taught by Dr. Debbie Pfister
The mass murder of European Jewry during the Holocaust has been recognized as one of the watershed events of the twentieth-century. Eliminating millions of people by shooting, gassing, and starvation, the Third Reich has created a new world, the like of which has not been experienced before. Its implementation of the Final Solution and the ways in which the Nazis carried out this death sentence for every Jew has affected our basic concepts of progress, enlightenment, morality, and freedom.
Exploring the social, political, historical, and cultural contexts of the Holocaust, the purpose of this course is to examine its depiction and representation in art, literature, poetry, and film. We will construct our inquiry around three major questions: why did this mass murder happen, how did it run its course, and how can we articulate the enormity and horror of this event in the various modes of artistic expression. Through this examination, will study the ways in which the Holocaust has continued to affect our religious beliefs, our sense of morality, and our notions of education and culture in the twenty-first century.

HIST 4334: The Holocaust and Nazi Medicine
Taught by Dr. Debbie Pfister
Beginning in 1934, under Nazi leadership, German physicians and scientists conducted some of the most gruesome medical experiments known to humankind. Initially conceived as a way to control national expenditures for the physically handicapped and mentally impaired, early sterilization programs were eventually replaced by euthanasia which served the Nazi program of eliminating “lives unworthy of life” from their population. In their attempt to build a genetically superior race, doctors, in service of the Reich, used human beings a guinea pigs, preying on the most innocent. Examining these unethical medical practices, this course will explore the path that took German medicine from being at the forefront of the modern medical profession in the 19th century to the horrors that were committed in the name of medical science during the Holocaust.
During the course of this analysis, we will discuss the relevant political and social issues of 19th and 20th century Germany, as well as the development of the eugenics movement and its ethical ramifications. In addition, we will examine the inhumane medical experiments conducted on countless innocent men, women, and children, as well as the 1946 Doctors’ Trials in Nuremberg in which twenty three doctors were tried for their roles in those atrocities. The Nuremberg Code, a set of ethical guidelines regarding human medical experimentation, was developed as a result of these proceedings with the hope of preventing such atrocities in the future.
The previously stellar reputation of German medicine has motivated some researchers to want use the data collected despite the unethical methods by which these experiments were conducted. This is a very controversial topic and has been the subject of much dispute within the medical and academic worlds. This class will participate in this debate, and discuss the ethical ramifications that are associated with the use of this data.

HIST 4344: The Weimar Republic
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
This course investigates the Weimar Republic from its birth amidst defeat and revolution to its demise in 1933. It discusses the artistic and intellectual culture of the Weimar Republic from an interdisciplinary perspective as an important period of transition and experimentation. Crisis and renewal affected almost every aspect of the fledgling Republic. Economic depression, political radicalism and social decline, as well as immense cultural creativity, new media and burgeoning consumer cultures marked the young Republic. The course will discuss literary texts, visual art, movies, theater plays, and musical compositions.

HIST 4344: Jewish History
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
In this course we will examine the profound transformation that Jews, as communities and individuals, experienced from the late eighteenth century to the postwar period. We will analyze and evaluate a broad range of primary texts and visual material, including several movies. We will explore political and ideological, as well as cultural and religious, developments. Central themes include the Jewish Enlightenment, the process of emancipation, religious reform, modern anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, Zionism, and the founding of the State of Israel. Lectures will concentrate on central themes and include slide and video presentations. This is an introduction to modern Jewish history, thought, and literature.

HIST 4344: Berlin: History of a City
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
Berlin is a quintessentially modern city. It was at once an important center of population, economic, and culture, as well as a place of exchange of goods, ideas, and peoples from across the world. The course will explore issues of industrialization, urban renewal and planning, space, class, and migration. Key factors we will look at are class, gender, ethnicity, consumer culture, crime, and the representation of the city in literature, art, and film. This course will moreover focus on the major events and conflicts that have left their mark on the city: the rise of the modern metropolis, economic depression and social unrest, the two World Wars, Nazism and the Holocaust, the Cold War and its aftermath.
The course aims to introduce you to exploring aspects of modern urban cultures and to study modern German history from the perspective of Berlin. You will investigate the experience of modernity through textual and visual sources.

HIST 4344: War and Atrocity in 20th Century Europe
Taught by Dr. Debbie Pfister
Marked by turmoil, twentieth-century Europe was consumed by unprecedented xenophobia and mass killings which decimated entire cultures and changed the face of the continent. As the evils of this century culminated in the destruction of the ideals of the Enlightenment, they set a new precedent for cruelty and barbarity in the modern period. Focusing on the Balkan Wars, the Armenian Genocide, the First World War, the rise of Stalinism, Nazism, and the Holocaust, this course will examine the ways in which these events emerged out of the dramatic social, scientific, political, and cultural changes and movements of the nineteenth-century. In addition, it will explore the rampant nationalism of the era which fostered extremist ideas that eventually became radicalized by murderous regimes, and ultimately, ended in chaos and the death of millions.

HIST 4344: Siberia and Auschwitz
Taught by Dr. Debbie Pfister
Siberia and Auschwitz have become synonymous with the most violent symbols of barbarity, cruelty, torture, and death in the modern period. While these sites represent the darkest side of humanity, at the same time, they also stand as testaments to human endurance and survival. By exploring the literature which emanated from the experiences of those sentenced to these places, this course will examine the random acts of courage as well as the constant threat of death, that every second of the day, held each prisoner of these systems in the balance. In addition, Siberia and Auschwitz will examine the foundations of the two totalitarian regimes who built their foundations on the basis of these locations which were dedicated to evil and atrocity, and ultimately, came to define a century.

HIST 4344: Liberalism in Weimar Germany
Taught by Dr. Debbie Pfister
Confronted with the traumatic losses of World War I, revolution, and a looming financial crisis, Germany was at a socio-political crossroads in 1918, which demanded change. In the midst of those final days of war, as German politicians tried to keep the country from exploding into chaos, a fledgling democracy emerged in Weimar that held the promise of a liberal transformation of German society. But as the country fought to find its way back to a place within the international community, it faced many obstacles, among them, the disgrace of defeat, harsh penalties under the peace treaties, the transition to a new form of government, exorbitant inflation, workers strikes, domestic terrorism, and the Depression. Considering the difficulties and tensions confronting Germany during the years of the Weimar Republic, this course will examine the ways in which the idea of liberalism emerged in that country during the post-Enlightenment era, along with the concept of the modern nation state. Moreover, we will analyze the rise, development, and evolution of this concept not only in Weimar, but also in other democratic countries of the time, and the reasons for its ultimate demise in Germany.
In addition, Liberalism in Weimar will explore the dramatic cultural changes taking place in Germany during the interwar period, considering the interplay among art, culture, politics, and propaganda in this new post-war environment and explain the tensions characterizing this period and the country’s eventual descent into Nazism.

HIST 4376: After the Holocaust
Taught by Dr. David Patterson
Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the Jewish condition after the annihilation of European Jewry, this course explores the issues and challenges facing the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It examines the history of the Jewish state, the standing of the Jewish people, debates concerning the future of Judaism, and the crises in Jewish identity, thought, and sense of purpose in the world after Auschwitz. Also to be considered are confrontations between Jews and Christians and post-Holocaust issues facing Christendom, since the annihilation of the Jews occurred in the heart of Christian Europe. The instructional format is lecture with substantial discussion.

HIST4376: America and the Holocaust
Taught by Dr. Debbie Pfister
The United States has a long tradition as the beacon of hope for the downtrodden, defender of the defenseless, and refuge for the oppressed. In recent years, that tradition has been heavily scrutinized as a result of the Nazis’ persecution of Europe’s Jewish populations between 1933 and 1945. As the scope of the Jewish plight became apparent, the American response became disjointed, confused, and impotent behind an enigmatic President, restrictive legislation, obstructionist bureaucrats, and a strangely silent press. The burning question still lingers today: Was America’s lack of response the result of an inept and poorly managed government or was it consistent with an undercurrent of anti-Semitism running throughout the American public and their government?
The purpose of this course is to examine, in detail, the extent and the rationales of the United States’ response to the events in Europe between 1933 and 1945. To do this, we must first understand what the US Government knew, when they knew it, and what they did with that knowledge. Students will explore the extent of racism and anti-Semitism in 20th Century America and how those feelings affected the press, the public, and politicians up to the highest level of Government. Using extensive readings, primary source documents from Government archives, personal diaries, and first-hand accounts, we will delve deeply into a tragedy that if not prevented, could have been mitigated by a US response consistent with our lofty ideals.

HIST 4376: The Holocaust and Its Aftermath
Taught by Dr. Debbie Pfister
Unique in its ferocity and scope, the Holocaust represents a period of unparalleled human tragedy which resulted in the decimation of the Jewish population of Europe between 1933 and 1945. In The Holocaust and its Aftermath we will examine this catastrophic event, with a focus on the history of anti-Semitism and its ultimate manifestation in genocide. Throughout this exploration, the course will consider the social, political, historical, and cultural ideas which eventually led to the Shoah, as well as the development of the modern state of Israel and the numerous problems survivors faced as they tried to leave Europe in the wake of the tragedy.
Enhancing this investigation will be a trip to the sights of the lost communities and concentration camps in Poland, in addition to research in the archives at Yad Vashem in Israel. Through this experience, students will be afforded a deeper understanding of this topic through direct contact with the sights of destruction, while learning about the struggles of the survivors to rebuild their lives against tight immigration quotas and nearly insurmountable odds.

HIST 4378: The Jewish Experience in America
Taught by Dr. Nils Roemer
The United States has often been described as an exceptionally hospitable place for Jews. We will explore the creation and evolution American Jewish culture and investigate the impact of successive waves of migration upon the making of American Jewry. We will study the process of cultural renewal and religious reform, assimilation, anti-Semitism, American Jewish responses to the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and the interaction between Israel and American Jewish communities in the postwar period. We will pursue these issues by investigating a variety of textual, visual, and audio sources. By studying the American Jewish experience, students will gain also an important insight into the making of American history.

LIT 3312: Nineteenth-Century European Novels
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
This course will undertake an in-depth study of nineteenth-century fiction. It will examine some of this period’s landmark, representative texts and consider their aesthetic features as well as their revolutionary critique of the world in the realm of history, religion, morality, and politics. In addition, it will study the immense intellectual and emotional changes these works have invented and foretold about modernity.

LIT 3312: The Rise of the European Novel
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
This course will undertake an in-depth study of nineteenth-century fiction. It will examine some of this period’s landmark, representative texts and consider their aesthetic features as well as their revolutionary critique of the world in the realm of history, religion, morality, sensibility, and politics. In addition, it will study the immense intellectual and emotional changes these works have invented and foretold about modernity.

LIT 3312: Narratives of Change
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
This course will undertake an in-depth study of nineteenth-century fiction. It will examine some of this period’s landmark, representative texts and consider their aesthetic features as well as their revolutionary critique of the world in the realm of history, religion, morality, and politics. In addition, it will study the immense intellectual and emotional changes these works have invented and foretold about modernity.
Students will examine some of the landmark narratives of nineteenth century European fiction. They will discuss these texts’ aesthetic features as well as their critique of generally accepted social, moral, and scientific truths. In addition, they will write about the changes these narratives have projected.

LIT 3328: Ethics in Literature
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
Central to this course is the study of a selection of landmark nineteenth-and twentieth-century literary texts that embody concepts and arguments springing from the realm of ethics. Noting that such concepts and arguments assume a crucial importance in the plot and structure of these works, we shall ask questions about the boundaries between the field of morality and aesthetics as well as about the relevance of ethical considerations in evaluating literature. Ultimately, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which a work’s moral system and its aesthetic scheme can illuminate and enrich one another.
Students will be able to apply basic methodologies of interpreting literary text. They also will be able to describe the ethical implications of several philosophical concepts embedded in literary works by major nineteenth-and twentieth-century thinkers, writers, poets, and critics. In addition, they will be consider some of the basic questions about the relevance of ethical considerations in evaluating literature.

LIT 4329: Major Authors - Goethe, Schiller, & Thomas Mann
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
This course will consider major representative works of three prominent German authors: Goethe, Schiller, and Thomas Mann. Each of these authors had been drawn to the political, scientific, and literary activities of his time; each composed pieces that summarized his age, and each believed in, and insisted upon, the moral and public significance of art. Studying the poetry and surpassing craft of Goethe and Schiller, we also shall consider these authors' reception of such movements as the European Enlightenment and Romanticism and discuss their views on the role of art and the artist in culture. Likewise, exploring some of the major texts by Mann, we shall recognize the political shifts and cultural changes which played themselves out in this writer's life time and study his concerns regarding the crisis of art. In addition, we shall consider the emotional, artistic, and intellectual parallels between Goethe and Schiller and to the links which Mann saw as marking his relationship to these two classical poets of the eighteenth century.
Students will consider some of the representative works of three major German authors: Goethe, Schiller, and Thomas Mann. In addition, they will analyze orally as well as in writing both Mann’s interpretation of Goethe and Schiller and his belief in these poets’ shaping significance for the development of German literature.

LIT 3343: European Romanticism
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
One of the major intellectual concomitants of the French Revolution was the Romantic Movement, creating new sets of ideas and expressions in literature, music, and the arts, emphasizing irrational and subconscious forces, heretofore suppressed or disregarded by Europe’s traditional, hierarchical societies. Rebelling against the latter as well as against the ideas of the Enlightenment, the Romantic Movement emphasized the supremacy of feeling over reason, the intuitive, emotionally-determined process of creativity, folk spirit, artistic endeavors, the extremes of psychic life, and the mystical yearnings of the soul. The explosions this movement created had transformed the development of Western philosophy and art, preparing the ground for such new aesthetic ideas as “pure poetry” in the nineteenth century, atonal music and abstract painting in the twentieth.
The purpose of our course is to study the background and explore some of the major literary works inspired by and reflecting Romanticism, trace this movement’s salient ideas, and consider the structural innovations, spiritual changes, and the new aesthetic concepts it has produced.
Students will discuss the genesis of the Romantic Movement and its future impact on Western philosophy, literature, art, and music; in addition they will explore its concepts and themes through some of the major literary works of the period.

LIT 3344: European Realism and Naturalism
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
Realism and Naturalism emerged among the major aesthetic movements in the field of literature and the arts in nineteenth-century Europe. Inspiring heretofore unimaginable visions, subject matters, and approaches, Realism aimed at a direct and objective depiction of reality, while Naturalism attempted to follow the principles and methods of natural sciences. Both movements wished to present life truthfully and accurately, rather than idealize or morally circumscribe the world. For the first time in literary history, the characters that appear in these fictional texts struggle with their own instinctual drives and obsessions, hereditary compulsions, elemental passions, and drinking habits. They often emerge as victims of their society, their oppressive environment, and the socioeconomic pressures amid which they live.
We will read novels, dramas, and short stories by some of the major authors of both literary movements, and discuss the aesthetic flowering as well as the social and psychological insights they have inspired.
Students will discuss the rise of Realism and Naturalism in nineteenth-century Europe as well as these movements’ future impact on Western philosophy, perception of science, literature, and the arts. In addition they will explore the major concepts and themes of this new vision of the world in the context of some of the major literary works of the period.

LIT 4344: The Modern Novel
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
Central to this course is the study of the evolution of twentieth-century European fiction. We will examine some of the landmark, representative texts of the time not only for their literary features and poetic structures but also for their response to the tremendous earthquakes shaking the continent and their discoveries of new spheres of human consciousness and reality. Thus, we will pay attention to the radical changes taking place in the aesthetic, social, cultural, political and historical realms of the time so that the class may read the texts in light of the events and processes they embody, reflect, and criticize.
Students will consider and explore some of the new spheres of human consciousness manifested in the European literature of the twentieth century. In addition, they will discuss, describe, and write papers about the major philosophical responses to the changes shaking the continent.

LIT 4344: Novels from Joyce to Kundera
Taught by Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
Central to this course is the study of the evolution of twentieth-century European fiction. We will examine some of the landmark, representative texts of the time not only for their literary features and poetic structures but also for their response to the tremendous earthquakes shaking the continent and their discoveries of new spheres of human consciousness and reality. Thus, we will pay attention to the radical changes taking place in the aesthetic, social, cultural, political, and historical realms of the time so that the class may read the texts in light of the events and processes they embody, reflect, and criticize.