Sara & Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center
Program Brochure

The Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (MAHG) at Stockton University offers an interdisciplinary and wide-ranging education on genocide and mass violence. The program prepares its graduates for employment in education, museums, and organizations that aim to stop and prevent mass atrocities. The MAHG program’s diverse and growing faculty work to ensure the success of our students. Two faculty members are devoted solely to Holocaust and Genocide Studies (Elisa von Joeden-Forgey and Raz Segal), with an additional core faculty member from the history program (Michael Hayse), and three associated faculty members from the programs in communications (Christina Morus), political science (Lauren Balasco), and social work (Elma Kaiser). We also host a distinguished senior visiting scholar every year.

The challenges that MAHG faculty and anyone working in this field face are immense. Genocidal violence is currently unfolding in a number of places around the world. The government in Myanmar has been conducting a campaign of destruction against Rohingya Muslims since 2012, which has pushed more than 700,000 to flee to neighboring Bangladesh where they languish, unwanted, in refugee camps. More than five million people have fled the civil war and mass violence in Syria since 2011, with almost half a million people dead and destruction of unprecedented dimensions. Rohingya Muslim and Syrian refugees count among more than 65 million refugees today; around half of them are under the age of 18.

The MAHG program is designed to help students explore and understand central historical processes in the making of this reality—our world in which the post-Holocaust cry of “never again” has remained an empty slogan, certainly for these tens of millions of refugees. We strive to fill these words with meaning. To this end, we study the Holocaust as an integral part of modern genocide and mass violence—before, during, and after World War II. Students read and learn about European empire building, settler colonialism, and destruction of indigenous societies around the world; the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the US; the rise of exclusionary nationalism and the nation-state system in the twentieth century, including post-colonial states in the Global South; and the threat of nuclear weapons. And they discuss issues and questions that intersect with the dynamics of genocide, including human-induced environmental destruction, sexual violence, human security, and genocide prevention. Indeed, the program includes the first university-based Genocide Prevention Certificate Program in the world, a 15-credit online program founded and directed by Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey and taught by the best minds in the field. The Certificate can be taken on its own or as a track within the Master’s program. The Certificate program has allowed us to offer the option of completing the entire Master's program online.

The MAHG program emphasizes excellence in scholarship, teaching, and student learning. We are proud of our small classes, our seminars designed to meet student interests and needs, our generous fellowships and scholarships, our partnerships with university programs and organizations across the globe, and the diverse learning experiences we offer, which include internships with institutes throughout the United States and beyond, independent studies, lecture series and workshops at Stockton University, study tours, and research opportunities.

I invite you to contact my office at 609-652-4542 or e-mail Raz.Segal@stockton.edu for further information and with any questions.

Sincerely,

Raz Segal, Ph.D.

Director, Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (MAHG)
Assistant Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide
School of General Studies
Stockton University

 

The Program

We live in a world in which the post-Holocaust cry of “never again” has remained an empty slogan, certainly for tens of millions of refugees and victims of genocidal violence. Ongoing mass violence includes the murderous civil war in Syria since 2011, the destructive assault in Myanmar against Rohingya Muslims since 2012, and the uprooting and elimination of indigenous societies and cultures throughout the world. The MAHG program was founded in 1998 as the first program of its kind in the country. Through face-to-face and online courses taught by internationally renowned faculty, it offers a rigorous interdisciplinary approach to understanding central historical processes in the making of this reality, and how these histories point us to possibilities in the struggle against genocide. The MAHG program is thus committed to Stockton University’s mission to develop engaged and effective citizens, both locally and globally.