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CHGS Events, Fall 2025

Explore our Holocaust and Genocide Educator Programs

All times given in Eastern Standard Time
All events are free and open to the public

For more information write to holgen@ramapo.edu.

Dr. Zoé Samudzi’s Virtual Class Lecture

Wednesday, September 17, 2025 at 7:30 pm via Zoom Webinar

Register in Advance

Part of our Open Classroom Series, which invites members of the public to join Ramapo students in their courses for guest lectures. Students have priority in asking questions.

Headshot of Zoe Samudzi wearing a black shirt and glasses.

Zoé Samudzi is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of African-American and Africana Studies at The Ohio State University. She is also a Global Blackness Fellow with the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Johannesburg, and a fellow with African Museums and Heritage Restitution (AFRIMUHERE). Her work engages visuality, genocide memory, and African postcoloniality. As well as a writer, Samudzi is an associate editor with Parapraxis Magazine, a popular magazine dedicated to psychoanalytic thinking.

Foundational Concepts: Trauma and Postmemory

Dr. Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University

“From Trauma to Repair: Rethinking Postmemory at a Time of Crisis”

Thursday, September 18, 2025 / Campus Location, TBA

Picture of Marianne Hirsch in a white shirt with sun glasses and earings.

In this lecture, Marianne Hirsch will discuss how her thinking about the intergenerational transmission of memories of violent histories has shifted, particularly after October 7, 2023. Hirsch’s conceptualization of what she has called “postmemory”—based on family memories of surviving the Holocaust– initially focused on the inheritance and perpetuation of trauma. In this talk, she will explore the reparative potentials of memory through the work of several artists who open-up the past and reframe its debilitating legacies. Memory art, Hirsch will suggest, can become a transformative practice of communal repair and a platform of social solidarity.

This is part of our Foundational Concept Series, which re-introduces the foundational terms and concepts of Holocaust and Genocide Studies with specific attention to new trends and emerging perspectives.

Our Study-Trip to Prague, Summer 2025

Tuesday, September 30 at 5:30 pm

Campus Location TBA / Join Us on Zoom with Registration

Ramapo Students with Prague Castle and Charles Bridge

The students become the teachers… Hear from our students about their experiences studying abroad in the Czech Republic with CHGS Director Jacob Ari Labendz.

Our Trip Webpage

Ramapo students spent ten days in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities studying the region’s history of genocide and the echoes of that violence in contemporary approaches to human rights and multicultural belonging. The study-trip included visits to sites of mass atrocity; reflections on the histories and cultures of minority groups before, during, and after the Second World War; meetings with non-governmental organizations working in the field of human rights and representing marginalized communities; discussions with locals; and an impressive array of expert-led tours and museum visits. (Students also had ample free time to explore Prague on their own.) Most days began with a lecture from trip director Dr. Jacob Ari Labendz, who is an expert in Czech and Jewish history, or from fascinating local scholars. While this course focused significantly upon the Holocaust and Jewish life, it will delved with nuance and depth into the histories and contemporary conditions of Roma, the LGBTQ community, and refugees. We enjoyed an incredible program with an exceptional local partner.

Previous Years’ Programs

Lectures and Programs, 2024-2025

Lectures and Programs, 2023-2024

Lectures and Programs, 2022-2023