WASHINGTON, PA (Dec. 14, 2018)—Professor of German Michael Shaughnessy, Ph.D. spoke at Yad Vashem in Israel during a seminar held Nov. 11-15 as part of a conference on Holocaust Testimonies in the digital age.
The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) project organized the seminar with support of the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future,” and brought together staffers and scholars from various fields who work to provide greater access to materials relating to the Holocaust, including testimonies from survivors.
Dr. Shaughnessy learned about the seminar while conducting research at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin during the summer of 2018 and decided to apply because of the seminar’s dedication to the accessibility of Holocaust education materials.
“Recent studies have shown that students around the world lack a proper understanding of how the Holocaust came to be and what the early warning signs are,” Dr. Shaughnessy said. “Working with testimonies of survivors provides first-person accounts of the rise of Fascism and the Holocaust.”
During his presentation, Dr. Shaughnessy spoke about best practices in the design and delivery of educational technology, framing a methodology for disseminating and utilizing testimonies from Holocaust survivors throughout the educational world. His design process took into account the student perspective as a central component around which to build an effective curriculum.
Sharing ideas with a group of global scholars is an important part of expanding knowledge around the Holocaust, and Dr. Shaughnessy said he was glad to participate in the seminar.
“Research at the international level brings together some of the best minds on any given subject. Just as the world is globalized, so is academic research. I was proud to be selected and look forward to continuing my cooperative work with scholars across the globe,” he said.
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