Call for Proposals for "New Approaches to Teaching Holocaust Literature"

Editors: Erin McGlothlin (Washington University in St. Louis), McKenna Marko (University of Leeds), and Christin Zühlke (Washington University in St. Louis)

Application Deadline: April 15, 2024

Holocaust literature is now widely taught in the university classroom, yet developments across and beyond Holocaust Studies require new pedagogical approaches and frameworks. Recent insights into the canonization and circulation of Holocaust literature from historiography, postcolonial studies, gender studies, memory studies, and translation studies prompt new questions regarding the teaching of Holocaust literature: How can the complexity and diversity of Holocaust literature be made available to students when a canon has solidified over the years? How can students who have access only to translated texts or to texts written in a single language grasp the intrinsically multilingual nature of Holocaust literature? How can instructors draw attention to the diverse languages and geographies of Holocaust experience?  

New Approaches to Teaching Holocaust Literature will explore these and other questions through chapters that focus on pedagogical approaches and strategies. The volume is intended to serve as a valuable pedagogical tool for university-level instructors teaching Holocaust literature in both majorspecific and broad-based liberal arts courses.

We seek chapters in one of two formats: shorter contributions (4,000 words with notes) that focus on a discrete issue or pedagogical strategy, and longer chapters (8,000 words with notes) that either more thoroughly investigate a particular issue or concentrate on a broader topic. Chapters may address (but do not need to be limited to) such topics as: 

• Holocaust pedagogy for a diverse classroom
• Master and minor narratives of the Holocaust and its diverse languages and geographies
• The teaching of Holocaust literature in the context of resurgent nationalism, antisemitism, and anti-Jewish violence
• Transnational and multidirectional approaches relating the Holocaust to other historical instances of mass violence and human rights abuses.
• The critical role of translation and the limits of translation in the English-language classroom
• Gendered experiences during the Holocaust and in its representation
• Holocaust literature and aesthetics
• Multimedial pedagogical approaches to Holocaust literature
• The ethical dimensions of Holocaust literature
• The complexity of subject positions during the Holocaust

Chapters containing practical pedagogical materials, such as assignments, assessments, and sample syllabi, are encouraged. 

Please send McKenna Marko (M.Marko@leeds.ac.uk) and Christin Zühlke (zuehlke@wustl.edu) your 300-500 word proposal indicating your intended topic and chapter length (4,000 or 8,000 words) by April 15, 2024. Initial chapter drafts will be due April 1, 2025.