About the Center

Our Mission

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Research increases the knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust and genocide by providing education and research opportunities within the university and the Southwest Florida community. By facilitating partnerships with organizations here and abroad, we strengthen democratic institutions that confront genocide and other threats to human rights, such as intolerance, antisemitism, racism, and ignorance.

Our Vision

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Research envisions a time when its work will only be one of historical remembrance, not of contemporary recording; when we are more morally aware because we know of the potential existence of radical evil in every human society; and when we recognize the duty we each have to look out for the interests of all.

Past Conferences and Symposiums

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Research has and continues to host various conferences and symposiums to further the research and education of Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Memory & Narrative:Oral History of World War II on the Home Front
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Presenters discussed the impact and methodologies involved in the collection and analysis of oral histories of World War II, including the personal stories of childhoods on the home front, Holocaust survivors, military veterans, and partisans who fought for their countries during the war. The FGCU History program, The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the National Home Front Project: Collecting the Memories of World War II sponsored the event February 21-22, 2019 at Florida Gulf Coast University. The event was free and open to the pubic.
Memory, History & Justice: An Exploration on the Meaning that History & Memory have on Acts of Human Violence
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As human beings, we are constantly finding ways to carry forward memories of the past – particularly those events that we find to be of great cultural or moral significance. In doing so, we are inevitably making choices about what is worth remembering and how we ought to remember it. What is it that guides these choices? What ought to guide them? How, for example, do we as a society commemorate historical acts of injustice in a responsible way?

To explore these questions, the FGCU philosophy program hosted a special conference on the topic of “History, Memory, and Justice.” The conference took place March 24-25, 2017 in Room 247 of the Cohen Student Union. The event was free and open to the public.
The Nazi Games: The Berlin Olympics After 80 Years
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The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University hosted an international conference to commemorate 80 years since the 1936 Berlin Olympics. This conference brought together individuals from a wide variety of disciplines to explore key issues and present recent research relating to this event, as well as contribute to ongoing discussion.

This conference was free and open to the public, and took place over March 29 and 30, 2016, at Florida Gulf Coast University.
The Holocaust in Hungary
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The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University hosted an international conference to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of the Holocaust in Hungary in 1944. The conference took place Sunday, March 16 to Tuesday, March 18 at Cohen Student Union, Rooms 213 and 214. The conference was free and open to the public.

The conference featured 50 scholars from a wide variety of disciplines and countries to explore key issues and recent research relating to the Holocaust in Hungary, as well as to contribute to ongoing discussions on this event.

conferences