From Cambodia to Boston, Clark undergrads help edit survivor testimonies, analyze Holocaust education materials, examine human rights issues
Clark University Undergraduates Danielle Osterman’14, Shelby Margolin ’13 and Anna Voremberg ’13 have been spending their summer months continuing their studies and conducting research thanks to stipends they received from Clark’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program.
Osterman participated in the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE) summer Cambodian Studies study abroad program in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She took two classes: Cambodian history and culture and Nation building after the Khmer Rouge. She also made site visits to the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison. Osterman has been working with the Documentation Center, helping to edit survivor testimonies in Cambodia. Osterman majors in international development and social change.
Margolin traveled to Hayward, Calif., to work as an intern at Facing History and Ourselves under Jack Weinstein. There, she was responsible for planning, implementing, and possibly leading aspects of two week-long teacher workshops (one on Holocaust and human behavior, and one on race and membership). She interviewed participants to measure effectiveness and to identify how Facing History could further assist teachers in their classrooms. Margolin also reviewed and analyzed the organization’s online education materials, offering feedback on its usefulness and accessibility. Lastly, she conducted independent research on Holocaust perpetrators as preparation for her honors thesis; she plans to use her findings to construct a ‘lesson’ or ‘unit’ for individuals at Facing History to review. Margolin majors in international development and social change.
Voremberg spent the summer interning at The Consortium on Gender,Security, and Human Right. In addition to various organizational activities, she is examining and producing a state of the field report on forced abortion, forced marriage, and forced pregnancy, as well as research on women’s experiences as policy makers in the international sphere. Voremberg majors in psychology with a concentration in Holocaust and genocide studies.
“Each of these students clearly benefits from these summer internship and study opportunities. The impact of their experiences, however, extends beyond these three students to the broader Clark community,” said Shelly Tenenbaum, chair of the Department of Sociology, and director, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Undergraduate Program.
“The classroom is transformed when students return to campus and share their new insights with their peers and professors.”
~Professor Shelly Tenenbaum
The Holocaust and Genocide Studies program has been offering summer internship stipends every other year since 1999. Students are awarded the internship stipend on the basis of their academic record and internship proposal. Osterman and Voremberg are being funded by the Ina R. and Haskell R. Gordon Fund; Margolin is being funded by the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Fund for Scholars of Holocaust Studies.
