Alan Marcus is interviewed about the elections.

Alan Marcus is interviewed about Holocaust education.

Alan Marcus and Walter Woodward have been studying the role of Confederate monuments and other nostalgia in American memory.

“Historical monuments are intended to be timeless, but almost all have an expiration date,” they wrote. “As society’s values shift, the legitimacy of monuments can and often does erode.”

This is because monuments, including the names of U.S. military bases, reveal the values of the time in which they were created and advance the agendas of their creators.

In the era of social media, antisemitism and Holocaust denial are no longer hidden in the margins, spewed by fringe hate groups. From Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – and NBA player Kyrie Irving to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, well-recognized personalities have echoed antisemitic ideas, often online. Rather than teaching the Holocaust as an isolated event, educators must grapple with how it connects to antisemitism past and present. That means adapting to how people learn and live today: online.

Connecticut saw a record high number of antisemitic incidents last year. The Holocaust remembrance movement says “never forget,” but surveys find the problem is deeper — many young people lack basic knowledge of the Holocaust. On the next Cutline, we hear personal stories – then and now. We look at links between antisemitism and extremism, visit a Connecticut classroom teaching the Holocaust, and explore the story of Sobibor, a secret Nazi death camp that was a site of bravery and resistance.

For several years I also worked with Alan Marcus at the Neag School of Education on Teaching American History grants to give intense annual teacher training on how to bring Connecticut history into the classroom. As part of that we got involved with the State Board of Education’s revision of the state curriculum. I am proud to say they incorporated into the last round of the frameworks a quasi-requirement that when you teach American history in Connecticut you use as many examples as possible from Connecticut history to tell those stories. That I feel is a kind of a victory.

Alan Marcus, a professor of education at the University of Connecticut, says in his state, there have been calls to remove statues of Christopher Columbus, in connection to the explorer’s violent mistreatment of Native Americans. Marcus said monuments can become “expired” as society’s values shift.

“What’s acceptable in one time period might not be acceptable in a different time period,” Marcus explained. These “expired monuments” can be repurposed to instead teach about “how we frame certain histories and whose perspective we learn about and whose perspective is left out.”

“When someone feels like their rights are being violated or the government is overstepping their bounds, they’ll cite the Holocaust, which is very dangerous,” says Alan Marcus, a professor in UConn’s Neag School of Education.

Marcus recently was part of a team that produced a research study that was published in “Holocaust Studies” that examined the transition of Holocaust education from live to virtual survivor testimony. Marcus also wrote a column for The Conversation on the issue.

People tend to look at maps as information that should be taken as fact without the need for analysis, but that’s a mistake. When the average person consumes information through sources like television, radio, a website, or a newspaper, they might do it with a critical eye. What is the viewpoint of the news outlet? Has it been trustworthy in the past? Is there another source for this information to get a second opinion? A map is different. People tend to look at maps as absolute information that should be taken as fact without analysis. But that’s a mistake, according to a pair of UConn professors from the Neag School of Education in a recent article published in Social Studies Research and Practice.

When the average person consumes information through sources like television, radio, a website, or a newspaper, they might do it with a critical eye. What is the viewpoint of the news outlet? Has it been trustworthy in the past? Is there another source for this information to get a second opinion? A map is different. People tend to look at maps as absolute information that should be taken as fact without analysis. But that’s a mistake, according to a pair of UConn professors from the Neag School of Education in a recent article published in Social Studies Research and Practice.