Regional Institutes
HEFNU offers Regional Institutes in order to develop regional networks of Holocaust scholars and teachers. Each intensive seminar brings together experts on Holocaust-related topics with professors who teach or want to teach a Holocaust course on that topic. In addition to deep and focused discussion, attendees have the opportunity to learn from and engage with each other, and to build support for Holocaust education locally.
REGIONAL INSTITUTE: CHARLESTON
Deadline: November 1, 2026
"Interdisciplinary Approaches to Aktion Reinhard"
College of Charleston
February 27-March 1, 2027
The Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University (HEFNU), the College of Charleston, and Kean University are pleased to announce the Spring 2027 Regional Institute on “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Aktion Reinhard” which will take place February 27-March 1, 2027, at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
This HEFNU Regional Institute explores the history of Aktion Reinhard and the present state of research on this important phase of Holocaust perpetration. Institute faculty will draw attention to resistance at Treblinka, the materiality of research on Sobibor, the social dynamics of this Nazi operation as displayed through the history of Belzec, and how these camps interacted with their surrounding geographies and created sensory witnesses, again through the lens of Treblinka. Our keynote and wider sessions will focus on archaeological traces of the camps, objects left behind by Jews and guards, and what these artifacts reveal about what happened at the camps and how they are remembered today.
Central to this Institute are issues of witnessing, resistance, spatiality, and memory. We address the questions: what do we know about the Reinhard camps, why has so little work focused on these locations until very recently, and what does this silence say about the Reinhard camps in the historiography and memory of the Holocaust? This institute will discuss silence, erasure, and gender in its focus on resistance and the experiences of women while maintaining a spatial analytical frame common to most sessions. Always cognizant of place and space, and its location in Charleston, South Carolina this institute will also allow attendees to explore the intersections of the Holocaust, Jim Crow, and slavery as structures of violence.
The institute aims to be helpful to fellows looking to develop and strengthen courses in Holocaust history, Aktion Reinhard, Nazi extermination policy, and related topics.
Keynote: Caroline Sturdy Colls (University of Huddersfield, UK)
Teaching Faculty:
- Chad S.A. Gibbs (College of Charleston): Space, Gender, and Resistance at Treblinka
- Jacob Flaws (Kean University): Zones of Witnessing at Treblinka
- Hannah Wilson (University of Manchester, UK): Material Memories and the Unearthing of Sobibor
- Jan Burzlaff (Cornell University): Bełżec and the Social Dynamics of Aktion Reinhard
- Lauren Ashley Bradford (Clark University): Violent Intersections: The Holocaust and Jim Crow
- Hana Green (College of Charleston)
- Tiarra Maznick (HEFNU)
We welcome applications from higher education faculty, museum professionals, and graduate students, particularly those who have attended a HEFNU Summer Institute, who have previously taught courses on any aspect of the Holocaust or Jewish civilization, who live and work in the southeastern United States, or who work at two-year institutions.
A fellowship includes the cost of tuition, room, and board during the Institute. Fellowships do not cover travel expenses to and from Charleston or the (low) cost of assigned materials.
To apply, please submit the following materials in a single PDF:
- A cover letter of no more than 1.5 pages indicating your interest and intent to teach classes related to the topic
- A short CV (2 pages)
- A sample syllabus or exhibition plan of a Holocaust, Jewish History, or Jewish Civilization course/exhibition that you have used previously or plan to use (optional but encouraged)
- For graduate students, a letter of recommendation from a faculty member familiar with your work – sent separately to hef@northwestern.edu (subject line: RI Charleston, First Name, Last Name)
Applicants will be notified of selection decisions by December 1, 2026.
You can find information about past regional institutes here