Amy Milligan Selected for Keene State Summer Institute
By: Elizabeth Proffitt
Dr. Amy Milligan, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Women's Studies at Old Dominion University was selected as one of only 18 faculty members to attend Keene State College's Summer Institute on Genocide Studies and Prevention in New Hampshire. The workshop will take place at the Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in early June, and it is the only workshop of its kind.
Milligan will be representing ODU with 18 other faculty members from around the world, including participants from Argentina, Armenia, Canada, India, Northern Ireland, the US, and Zimbabwe, also including the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum and someone from the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.
As the director of the Institute of Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding, the workshop will help Milligan with ODU's new Holocaust and Genocide Studies minor, "I will develop curriculum and events to help develop the new minor. Additionally, I will build a network with other programs and scholars that will afford opportunities to the students at ODU involved in the minor," Milligan said.
On a personal level, Milligan hopes to use this workshop to further her research and how to move forward. "I am someone deeply committed to social justice work. Because of my own beliefs in tikkun olam (the Jewish concept of repairing the world through social justice work and action), working toward genocide prevention is a crucial part of peacemaking," Milligan said.
Milligan also hopes that this workshop will further her ability to work with students and to teach them the importance of prevention and peacemaking.
"We live in a world where people say "Never Again!" when they speak of the Holocaust. Unfortunately, time and again we continue to see genocide and systematic violence," Milligan said.
"This workshop will help equip me as an individual and as an educator to work with students and the local community to build peacemaking and social justice platforms where we challenge oppressions and honor the lived experiences of those targeted by violence. Never Again doesn't stop with the Holocaust - it continues today as we look at our role as peace makers and global citizens," Milligan said.