DeHart Receives funding for Holocaust Studies

Associate Professor of Education Erin DeHart has received a grant of $5,000 from The Delta Kappa Gamma Educational Foundation, an international professional organization for women educators.

York College Associate Professor of Education Erin DeHart

The grant money will be used for “Special Holocaust Studies Course: Experiential Encounter,” a course DeHart teaches each spring that takes a group of 22 students to Washington, D.C., and New York City. The group tours Holocaust museums and hears from survivors in addition to their class work.

DeHart has also received a $500 grant from The Memorial Library in New York City for the class. The Memorial Library is the home of the Holocaust Educators Network and is one of the destinations DeHart’s class will visit.

The grant funding, as well as support from York College, will underwrite the program so that it is accessible to more students.

DeHart has been a member of DKG since 2005. They have supported her with other funding in the last few years, including scholarships for her to attend workshops. In 2011, she received a grant of $6,000 to be used toward her doctoral studies. DeHart is currently part of the Carnegie Project at University of Nebraska Lincoln. She expects to conclude her doctoral work in the fall of 2013.

Her EdD will be in teaching, learning, and professional development.

DeHart with Holocaust survivor Dr. Louis “Lou” I. Leviticus on the York College campus in 2009.

DKG has invited DeHart to speak at their international conference this July in New York City. DeHart plans to present on “teacher inquiry”—how teachers can further their own research interests through their classrooms. “You don’t have to be a full-time grad student to do research,” says DeHart. She should know—the Holocaust classes she teaches are part of the framework for her tentative doctoral dissertation topic on teaching social justice to pre-service teachers.

DeHart is the president of the local chapter of DKG and the chair of the scholarship committee at the state wide level. She has presented at state and regional gatherings of the organization. DeHart says she attributes much of her professional growth to her involvement with the organization and their financial support of her endeavors.