Interdisciplinary Program:

Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies

Program Office:

Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies (402)
Program Advisor: Dr. Viktoria Hertling, Professor of German and Director
University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557 TEL 775-784-6767   FAX 775-784-6611
Email center@unr.nevada.edu


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

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


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;
  multi-cultural 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)
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