HGPS Academic Minor Program

A 19-credit minor program in Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies (HGPS) is offered through the collaboration of several departments across the University and under the direction of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies. The Board of Directors of the Center is composed of prominent UNR faculty members and community leaders.

The minor program in HGPS is designed to connect ideas and experiences by focusing on social, historical, philosophical, political, cultural, and ethical issues in a wide variety of disciplines. Students are challenged to think critically and to examine the assumptions concerning issues of Holocaust, genocide, and peace. All courses will have a strong writing and communications component. Specifically, courses in this minor will increase students’ understanding of the following:

• How prejudice, hatred, and dehumanization policies originate and manifest themselves
  
  
• How such patterns become rationalized within individuals and in society
  
  
• How major social confrontations, conflicts, mass destructions, and genocides develop
  
  
• How to explore ways to resolve conflict
  
  
• How to nurture peaceful social and political relationships, and encourage ethical decision-making
  

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Students Enrolled in the Minor Program will be Required to Complete 19 Credit Hours

• Nine of these credits must be completed in the required "core" courses
  
  
• One additional "core" credit must be completed through an internship at the Center for HGPS
  
  
• Nine further credits must come from additional courses and special topics as specified below
  
  
• Students are strongly encouraged to complete a senior thesis/project (3+0) (3 credits) in one of the participationg departments or under the supervision of the Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies program advisor by using the Independent Suties option
  

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REQUIRED CORE COURSES (10)

• HGPS 201 - Concepts in Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Analyzes the origins of prejudice, hatred, and dehumanization policies; examines major social conflicts, mass destrucitons and genocides; explores conflict resolutions and peaceful social relationships
  
  
• PSC 431 - Holocaust and Genocide
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Anti-Semitism, Nazism, and the effort to eliminate European Jewry; multicultural and multi-disciplinary contexts. Prerequisite: WT 202. General capstone course
  
  
• HGPS 400 - Internship
  (1+0) 1 credit
  Strutured and supervised experience combining professional opportunities with reflective learning. Prerequisite: HGPS 201 or PSC 431.

AND

• One additional course chosen in consultation with HGPS program advisor
  (3 credits)

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ELECTIVES (09)

Students are to choose one three-redit course in each of the following categories. That choice will be modified if a student chooses a senior thesis/project.

• A.) How prejudice, hatred, and dehumanization policies originate and manifest themselves; how such patterns become rationalized within individuals and in society
  (3 credits)
  
  SOC 379 ETHNIC AND RACE RELATIONS
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Examination of social, economic, political and psychological aspects of ethnic and racial inequality. Analysis of cuases and consequences of racial discrimination in society. Prerequisite: SOC 101 (Diversity course.)
  
  PHIL 401 MORALITY
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Branch of ethics that concerns morality. Topics include: maximizing good, constraints on the pursuit of good, self versus society, rules versus judgment, moral conflict, beyond morality. Prerequisite: 6 credits in philosophy.
  
  PSC 429 THE POLITICS AND HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Analysis of the longest-standing hatred in Europe and America, sources of hostility towards Jews. Prerequisite: WT 203
  
  
• B.) Examples of major social confrontations, conflicts, mass destructions, and genocides
  (3 credits)
  
  HIST 423-424, 623-624 HISTORY OF GERMANY
  (3+0) 3 credits each
  Institutional, social, economic and political development of the German states to 1848. Continued through the period of German unification, empire, the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era.
  
  ART 415 PROPAGANDISTIC ART: 1925-45
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Propaganda in art in the U.S. and selected European countries. Traditional and nontraditional media such as radio and cinema are covered.
  
  CJ 479 WOMEN, VIOLENCE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Historical-legal examination of violence by and against women and responses of the criminal justice system. (General capstone course.)
  
  HCS 401 HUMAN DIVERSITY AND MULTICULTURALISM
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Analysis of biological, psychological, sociological and cultural factors which contribute to human diversity and multiculturalism within American society. (General capstone course)
  
  SW 404 LESBIAN AND GAY LIVES
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Examines disciplinary perspectives used in understanding the experience of homosexual people in America. Includes psycho-social research, literature, film, historical writing and public policy portrayals.
  
  *** SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES (PSC, HIST, SOC, FLL, ENG, etc.) dealing with Armenian, Rwandan, and other genocides and major conflicts
  
  
• C.) How to explore ways to resolve conflict; how to nurture peaceful social, interpersonal, and political relationships; how to encourage ethical decision-making
  (3 credits)
  
  PSY 102 PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONAL AND SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Deals with personality adjustment in normal persons. Adjustment techniques and reactions to frustration and conflict in the context of various social groups are considered. Prerequisite: PSY 101.
  
  PSY 433 PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF RACIAL DIFFERENCES
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Multicultural view of exitence in the United States from the perspective of ethnic minorities. Psychological implications and consequences of racial identity, socio-cultural factors and racism. Prerequisite: PSY 101.
  
  HS 400 CULTURE AND ETHICS
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Analysis of the constraints on applied decision making, including the role that relgion, family and society play in the formation of values.
  
  PSC 436, 636 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Violation and protection of human rights in international law and politics; major issues since 1945 in various countries and regions. Prerequisite: WT 202, WT 203. (General capstone course.)
  
  SOC 470 FAMILY VIOLENCE
  (3+0) 3 credits
  Examination and critical analysis of major theoretical perspectives on family violence. Analysis of current issues and debates in family violence. Prerequisite: SOC 101. (General capstone course.)
  
  *** SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES