Course Requirements

MAHGE: 30 credits. Students must complete the core courses and capstone listed below, for a total of 18 credits. They may then chose four elective courses to make up the additional 12 credits. Please note that up to 12 credits from another institution may be transferred into the MAHGE.

Certificate in HGE: 12 credits. Students must complete the two pedagogy core courses, and two history core courses.

*Permission to substitute core courses is possible with permission from the program director

Core Courses: Pedagogy

Introduction to Holocaust and Genocide Education: Intended for teachers, those working in public history, and engaging in anti-bias education in nonprofits and NGOs, this course will focus on learning about hard histories, and appropriate pedagogies and interdisciplinary methodologies for teaching these subjects.

HGE Program Creation and Evaluation: This course provides students with the knowledge needed to evaluate existing curricula and programming used to teach hard histories in order to create an innovative, appropriate, and effective course of study about a hard history of their choosing.

Core Courses: History

Holocaust History: Students will examine the long history of the Holocaust with emphasis on major events, overarching themes, and narratives related to political and social radicalism; propaganda and education; gender and sexuality; art and culture; inclusion and exclusion; antisemitism; genocide; and memorialization.

Comparative Genocide: This course opens up the discussion on how we understand, recognize, and respond to acts of genocide through case studies of Armenia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Myanmar.

Holocaust Historiography: Through assessment of approaches, debates, and methodology, students will interrogate key texts, major research questions, and methodologies in Holocaust and Genocide Historiography; ultimately , this course centers the major questions facing historians today and where research and the field, overall, should go in the future.

Capstone Course: To complete the MAHGE, students will be asked to write a short thesis, as well as apply their research to an interdisciplinary project meant for a broad audience.

Interdisciplinary Electives include:


  • Museum Studies

  • Contemporary Jewish Life

  • Sociology of the Holocaust

  • Critical Race Theory: Application and Intervention

  • Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Justice

  • Social Dynamics of Political Violence, Insurgency and Civil Unrest

  • Contemporary Social Problems

  • Global Environmental Justice and Social Change

  • Holocaust Memory



  • History of Political and Social Movements

  • Imperialism and Colonialism

  • Law and Human Rights

  • Native American Literature

  • Psychology of Ethnic Identity and Community in America

  • Psychology of Conflict and Conflict Resolution

  • European Racial Thought

  • The Nazi Camp System

  • Colloquium in HGE

  • Colloquium in History