Alan Marcus

Professor

Biography:

Alan Marcus is Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Connecticut and is a UConn Teaching Fellow. His scholarship and teaching focus on museum education, teaching with film, and global education, with an emphasis on the Holocaust and teaching difficult history. Alan collaborates with museum educators across the United States and internationally, is a Faculty Fellow for the Holocaust Institute for Teacher Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and runs an education abroad program for pre-service teachers in Nottingham, England. Alan is the past president of the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies and was the lead editor, and a writer, for the new State of Connecticut Social Studies Standards. His current research includes evaluating the potential and limitations of digital interactive Holocaust survivor testimony and participating as a part of the Technology Meets Testimony scholar network at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. He is the director of the Morris and Judy Sarna Breaking Bias and Creating Community program using virtual reality and digital Holocaust survivors with secondary school students. Alan is a former high school social studies teacher.

Academic Degrees:

Ph.D. Curriculum & Teacher Education, Stanford University
M.A.T Social Studies Education, Boston University
B.S. Political Science, Tufts University

Areas of Expertise:

History Education

Holocaust Education

Teaching with Film

Museum Education

Teacher Education

Social Studies Education

Selected Publications:

Is the United States Exceptional? Inviting Students to Consider American Democracy, Liberty, Opportunity, and Optimism During Troubled Times. (2024). The Social Studies.

‘Oppenheimer’s Little Toy’: Why teaching history with film still matters. (2024). Teaching History.

Marcus, A.S., Griffith, K.A*, Powers, F.G. The power(s) of Bridge of Spies to learn about the Cold War. (2024). Social Studies Research and Practice.

Combating antisemitism today: Holocaust education in the era of Twitter and Tik Tok (2023) The Conversation.

Holocaust education in transition from live to virtual survivor testimony: Pedagogical and ethical dilemmas. (2021). Holocaust Studies.

Mapping the pandemic: teaching critical map literacy with interactive COVID-19 maps. (2021). Social Studies Research & Practice. 16 (2).

Monuments expire, but offensive monuments can be powerful history lessons. (2020, September 4) The Conversation

The grey zone of Holocaust education: Teaching the Holocaust with film. (2020). In A. Patt & L. Hilton (Eds.), Understanding the teaching of the Holocaust. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Teaching about genocide with film. (2020). In S. Totten (Ed.), Teaching About Genocide: Advice and Suggestions from Secondary Level Teachers and Professors. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Promoting Intercultural Competence in Professional Spaces: Education Abroad Experiences in England for Social Studies Pre-Service Teachers. (2019). Global Education Review, 6 (4). 31-49.

Why we need to rethink how we teach the Holocaust. (2018, May). The Conversation.

Teaching History with Film: Strategies for Secondary Social Studies. (2018). 2^nd Edition. New York: Routledge.

Teaching The Holocaust Through Film. (2017). Social Education. 81 (3) 172-176.

Teaching history with Museums: Strategies for K-12 social studies. (2017). 2^nd Edition. New York: Routledge.

Teaching Difficult History with Film. (2017). New York: Routledge.

Enhancing Intercultural Understanding for Pre-service Teachers through Developing and Sustaining Education Abroad Experiences. (2015). The Journal of International Social Studies. 5 (2) 22-37.

How secondary history teachers use and think about museums: Current practices and untapped promise for promoting historical understanding. (2012). Theory and Research in Social Education.

The inconvenient truth about teaching history with documentary film: Strategies for presenting multiple perspectives and teaching controversial issues. (2009). The Social Studies. 100 (6), 279-285.

“The reality of it all:” History students read the movies. (2006, Fall). Theory and Research in Social Education.