AVAILABLE PROGRAMS & SERVICES
Keynotes & Public Events.
Youth Workshops & Family Programs.
Teacher & Museum Educator Trainings.
Design, Writing & Research Consulting.
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Through Unsilence, I design and deliver different kinds of education programs for many different audiences. Interested in my work? Please get in touch.
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1. PEDAGOGIES & TYPES OF PROGRAMS
Drawing on my training as a learning scientist, I use pedagogical methods that are grounded in research and place audiences at the center of their own learning. 'INTERACTIVE LECTURES' & WORKSHOPS Rather than ask teens and public audiences to sit passively through academic speeches, my programs for young learners and the public are highly interactive. Full of thought-provoking activities and group discussions, my 'interactive lectures' and workshops spark meaningful reflection about histories of atrocity and injustices in our world today. 'CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-PATHWAY' EXPERIENCES I write 'choose-your-own-pathway' stories and facilitate live experiences that ask young learners and public audiences to make decisions about where the story will go next. As audience members begin to own each twist and turn of the narrative, I guide them to confront the story's central questions and themes. EDUCATOR TRAININGS I create and facilitate stand-alone trainings for teachers and informal educators, designed to give educators a tool box of lesson plans, pedagogical philosophies, and tangible activity ideas, and to support them to engage young learners in conversations about histories of atrocity and injustice today. 'PEDAGOGICAL MODELING' To support deep reflection and skill-building, I offer an innovative add-on option to the professional development trainings for teachers and educators that I design and deliver: Pedagogical modeling follows three steps: (1) Educators observe me leading a youth workshop or series of workshops. (2) Educators are tasked with identifying the specific pedagogies, philosophies, and facilitation methods that I employed. (3) I guide the educators to reflect on those new pedagogies and I help them develop skills and build their own plans for teaching. 2. AUDIENCES
My programs are suitable for many different kinds of audiences, including combined audiences (family and intergenerational programs, for example). EDUCATORS Elementary School Teachers Middle School Teachers High School Teachers Informal Educators Museum Docents Youth Workers & Social Workers College Professors & Instructors Medical Teams YOUNG PEOPLE Middle School Students High School Students University & College Students Youth Center Participants ADMINISTRATORS & TEAMS School Administrators Museum Leaders University & College Administrators Nonprofit Teams, including Boards Government Workers and Policymakers Corporate Teams PUBLIC Parents & Caregivers Seniors Congregations of Faith Community Leaders Volunteer & Civic Groups General Public 3. GROUP SIZE & PROGRAM DEPTH
My programs can be delivered to audiences of varying sizes and can be adapted to fit any timeframe that makes sense for your community. Intimate group 5 to 14 people Classroom 15 to 39 people Small group 40 to 74 people Medium group 75 to 149 people Large group 150 to 249 people Auditorium 250 to 1,000 people and above Short Session 30 minutes to 1 hour Full Session 1.5 to 2 hours Half Day 2.5 to 4 hours Full Day 4.5 to 8 hours Extended Day 8.5 to 12 hours Multi-Day Tailored to your community 4. EXAMPLES OF PROGRAM THEMES & CONTENT
Many of my programs listed below can be combined into one package, to create tailor-made programs for your community. Here are some examples of the program themes (highlighted in bold) and the content I offer: UNSILENCE INJUSTICE Explore why and how certain narratives of atrocity become marginalized and hidden from public view, and what happens when we unsilence them. OVERLAPPING TRIANGLES Explore why and how some voices of the Holocaust - of the Roma, the disabled, LGBTQ people, interfaith Jewish-Christian families, political dissidents, and many other victims of Nazism - are marginalized and even omitted from Holocaust memory. Consider how the inclusion of taboo narratives changes lessons of Holocaust and anti-genocide education. TRAIN: THE ACCIDENTAL NOVELIST How was my historical novel TRAIN inspired by hidden Holocaust histories? And how did I write it by accident? Explore the process of writing about atrocity, and consider the limits of human rights fiction. THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF EUGENICS Explore how Nazi ideology was inspired by the global eugenics movement of the early 1900s, consider connections between British, American, and German eugenists in the early stages of the Holocaust, and confront post-war prejudice and the continuation of government-led mass-sterilizations of people of color and people with disabilities in the United States. DESIGNING MEMORY: HOLOCAUST MUSEUMS & MEMORIALS Explore the design of Holocaust museums and memorials around the world. Consider how the design of exhibitions and spaces for commemoration affect collective Holocaust memory and public learning. THE 19TH WINDOW Experience a choose-your-own-pathway-mystery, inspired by real hidden Holocaust histories, and explore intergenerational memory and our emotional responses to violence. Explore questions about investigating history and collective memory today. PROMISES BROKEN Become familiar with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), apply the United Nations document to social injustices today, and explore why the 30 articles of UDHR are not well known across the United States, even though the U.S. signed it and even helped to write it. INNOCENCE LOST: CHILDREN'S VOICES & THE HOLOCAUST Consider the value of including the experiences and artistic responses of children within Holocaust education and commemoration. Confront complex questions about innocence and misconceptions we hold about children's experiences during the Holocaust, including their participation in resistance against Nazism. THE SON Grounded in the true story of Michael Bauer and his parents, Jewish Holocaust survivors Tema and Morris, navigate a choose-your-own-pathway-testimony about intergenerational trauma and LGBT rights. BLACK-&-WHITE MEMORY: THE HOLOCAUST THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS Through a collection of historical photographs, explore the contemporary relevance of the victim-rescuer-perpetrator paradigm and discover a surprising connection between Holocaust history and pop culture today. CONFRONTING HOLOCAUST DENIAL Explore the history of Holocaust denial. Consider how to confront Holocaust denial - and, more broadly, atrocity denial - in our world today. HIDDEN PAGES Navigate a live webquest - a series of puzzles - of hidden histories to unsilence the voices of disabled, Roma, homosexual, and political victims of the Holocaust. MIS-REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST Explore common misconceptions about Holocaust history, the writing and rewriting of human history, and the implications for Holocaust education and collective memory. RHYMING THROUGH TIME: WHEN HISTORY REPEATS (AND WHEN IT DOESN'T) Confront why and how we make comparisons and draw connections between the Holocaust and contemporary events. Consider why we recoil or even feel outraged at some comparisons while we emphatically agree with others. Through specific examples from recent public discourse, consider wholly inappropriate comparisons, the search for necessary warnings, and controversial conflations between modern day events and the history of Nazism. OXYGEN Participate in an interactive tool on how to talk about different forms of violence and how to help others, especially young people, navigate their emotional responses. GHOSTS OF AUSCHWITZ Explore fragmented stories of Holocaust history, the road blocks and dead ends of familial memories, and our struggle to search for, find, and then unsilence hidden injustices today. A TOUR GUIDE AT AUSCHWITZ Experience a live interactive, true story about taboos of genocide, including sexual violence and homophobia, and consider the censorship of injustices around the world today. WAR OF WORDS: WRITING ABOUT ATROCITY Explore the goals and challenges of writing about extreme violence, mass-murder, atrocity, and traumatic memory. Consider the problems, pitfalls, and power of human rights fiction. LAUGHING AT THE HOLOCAUST Consider the boundaries of Holocaust humor and the censoring of our emotional responses to atrocity and violence. HOLOCAUST TIME TRAVEL? Explore the dos and don’ts of Holocaust and anti-genocide education. Consider the potential harmful implications of simulation, immersion, and role-play as teaching tools. Explore how to support students’ emotional responses to learning about atrocity. Consider the use of technology in the future of Holocaust and anti-genocide education. A HOLOCAUST FAIRYTALE Explore why sci-fi and fantasy are so often used to tell the story of The Holocaust. From the science-fiction short stories written by Holocaust survivor Primo Levi to the integration of Holocaust narratives within recent superhero movies, explore how fantasy, fairytales, and magic have used been used to tell stories of persecution and resistance. BANISHING MONSTERS Explore why, throughout human history, so many people have committed, contributed to, and turned a blind eye to genocide. Consider what happens to our understanding of history when we dehumanize perpetrators of genocide and only remember them as 'evil' 'monsters.' HOLLYWOOD'S HOLOCAUST Explore the history of Holocaust cinema and its implications for collective memory and public learning. 5. CONSULTATION SERVICES
I offer consultation services to schools, museums, communities of faith, nonprofits, publishing houses, and other institutions:
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