USC Shoah Foundation and Texas A&M University To Develop Teaching Fellowships and Intern Program

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education and Texas A&M University announce a partnership to develop fellowships for professors and a student internship program on the Texas A&M campus.

The A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation will fund the three-year, $75,000 initiative. This fellowship will instruct professors on ways to integrate the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive of Holocaust and other genocide survivors’ testimonies into their teaching.

Texas A&M has partnered with the USC Shoah Foundation since 1999 and is one of only 51 universities that has full access to the Visual History Archive, which contains 53,000 testimonies of survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides. Nancy Brand, president of the A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation believes that “the resources in the Visual History and Education database are powerful, and their lessons remain relevant today. The survivor testimonies will enhance the educational experience at Texas A&M, and our foundation is very pleased to be part of this important initiative.”

The donation will also fund the nation’s first Holocaust Education internship, under the supervision of Rabbi Matt Rosenberg, executive director of Texas A&M Hillel. The selected student intern will serve as a liaison between the Texas A&M community and the USC Shoah Foundation, publicizing the resources available from the Visual History Archive to students, faculty, administration and the general public. “Hillel at Texas A&M is so excited to house the first Holocaust Education Intern as part of this amazing partnership.  We look forward to our intern promoting the vital work of the Shoah Foundation and educating the campus community about the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Rosenberg.

USC Shoah Foundation invites proposals for its inaugural 2015-16 A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation Teaching Fellow program that will provide summer support for one member of the Texas A&M University faculty, each year for the next three years, to integrate the Institute’s testimonies into new or existing courses. There are no restrictions with respect to the disciplinary approach or methodology of the proposed courses.

Proposals will be judged according to the centrality of the interviews to the course content. Preference will be given to classes that will be taught in the 2015-2016 academic year for existing courses and the 2016-2017 year for new course proposals.

Stipends will be awarded in the amount of $3,000 each with an additional $500 for in-class materials related to the testimonies. A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation Teaching Fellows will also be invited to spend one week in Los Angeles over the summer of 2015 to collaborate with USC Shoah Foundation staff and researchers. They will also be asked to present a lecture to the USC community about their research. Following the fellowship course, A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation Teaching Fellows will present a lecture, hosted by the USC Shoah Foundation, at Texas A&M University about their experience researching in the archive and using it in-class with their students. Final course syllabi will be posted to the Institute’s website.

Proposals for the fellowship are due by April 24, 2015. Awards will be announced in early May. For any questions, or to submit an application, please contact Kia Hays at kiahays@usc.edu.  More information about accessing the archive at Texas A&M is available at http://guides.library.tamu.edu/index.php.