Prestigious US posting for Holocaust scholar
AN Australian Holocaust and genocide scholar has been awarded a prestigious professorship in the United States.
AN Australian Holocaust and genocide scholar has been awarded a prestigious professorship in the United States.
Professor Paul Bartrop, a former head of history at Melbourne’s Bialik College, will take up his post next month as the first Australian to hold the Ida E King Distinguished Visiting Pro fessorship in Holocaust and Genocide studies at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey.
Previous scholars who have held the post include Michael Berenbaum, Yehuda Bauer and the late Franklin H Littell.
Prof Bartrop will teach a master’s program on Asian and African genocides, focusing on Cambodia, Timor Leste, Rwanda and Darfur.
“Stockton is the first university in the US to run a full graduate course in Holocaust and genocide studies,” Prof Bartrop told The AJN.
As one of the top 50 liberal arts colleges in the US, it is significant that Stockton has such an extensive Holocaust and genocide studies curriculum, he said.
Prof Bartrop, who has been involved with the Melbourne Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) since its inception in 1985, is an honorary consultant to the centre and helped rewrire the text used in its recently relaunched museum display.
Warren Fineberg, JHC executive director, acknowledged Prof Bartrop as a much-published and well-known author in the dual areas of the Holocaust and genocide studies.
“He is one of the few scholars in the world who is equally adept in both areas,” Fineberg said.
The professor’s recent projects have included An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide Biography: Portraits of Evil and Good, to be published next year, and an extensive filmography on the Holocaust and other genocides, with the working title Genocide Goes to the Movies.
Prof Bartrop’s view of his new position is simple: “An increasing lack of Holocaust awareness in younger generations shows that there is, more than ever, a need for Holocaust education.
“When this is coupled with the enormous ignorance prevailing about the word ‘genocide’, and about the human evils committed throughout history, we all have a lot more work still to do.”
PETER KOHN
Holocaust scholar Professor Paul Bartop
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