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(11/08/90 10:00am)
Calling the Holocaust a "unique" event in history, Cornell University Professor Steven Katz spoke yesterday to a standing-room-only crowd at Houston Hall. The Holocaust has become a test case against which other tragedies are measured, Katz said, stressing the importance of recognizing the Holocaust as a uncomparable tragedy. "It is very difficult to find in the history of time an intentional murder of an entire people," said Katz. He added that it differs from other historical mass killings resulting from slavery, witchcraft trials, and recent eastern European persecutions, since it was directed at one religion. "To say that other events are not the Holocaust is not to demean them morally or ethically," Katz told the group of nearly 100 people. "All the events are horrendous. They all violate moral sensibility. They all are beyond any ordinary sense of good and evil. This is not a moral but a phenomenological comparison." Dismissing staggering statistics that accompany mass deaths, Katz examined the philosophy behind the the Holocaust. He added that while other groups have been hated and killed, it has virtually always been for political and economic gain. During his hour-long speech he also focused on the dehumanization of people in the concentration camps. "The object was. . . make the Jew come to loathe themselves," he said. "[The object] also was to break the dignity and to destroy the bonds of obligation between the Jew and Aryan." Many members of the audience said they were impressed by his interdisciplinary approach and mastery of the subject. "He pulled so many things together," said Peter Koelle, a doctoral student in the School of Arts and Sciences. "He showed the Holocaust as a singularly unique phenomenon without denying other horrors of the twentieth century." "I thought it was a beautiful synthesis of historical analysis of one of the pivotal events of modern history," said College of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean Norman Adler. "The specific analyses focused on Jewish and modern European history, but the implications -- like all great intellectual achievements -- have universal applicability." Others praised his frank approach to the topic and said he gave a frightfully realistic description of the deaths in the concentration camps. "I saw people grimacing at his vivid descriptions of the death camps," College sophomore Jennifer Hirsh said. "He was very effective, without relying on numbers and body counts to support his argument." Katz, who was a visiting professor in the History Department last year, is a fellow at the Annenberg Research Institute.
(10/19/90 9:00am)
Addressing a standing room only crowd at the Graduate School of Education last week, a visiting professor emphasized the need to reinforce black cultural identity in classrooms. Speaking before a receptive and racially diverse audience of nearly 60 people, Gloria Ladson-Billings -- a visiting assistant professor of education from the Santa Clara University in California -- said black students should not forfeit their heritage to a predominantly white society. "Teachers need to correct racial distortions that society has created without being judgmental or derogatory," Ladson-Billings said. Affirmative cultural identity is essential if black students are going to transcend contradictions of a society that primarily stresses assimilation, she added. Claiming that "rap is more than lyrics," Ladson-Billings presented rap music as "a representative aspect of African-American culture that white Americans cannot always recognize and understand." During her hour-long speech, she downplayed claims that rap lyrics such as those from 2 Live Crew are obscene, adding that there is a spectrum of black verbal creativity that is "absent from white culture." "The lyrics speak of anger and frustration, criticizing the American system and suggesting a new world order," said Ladson-Billings. "Rap rejects school and school rejects rap," Ladson-Billings said, "Children are asked to choose between the two." Positive cultural imagery deemphasizes "the pressure to act white in order to succeed academically," she added. Encouraging black students to feel confident about their abilities in school promotes a sense of self worth, she said. "Students who feel less confident are more likely to be suffering motivationally," said Ladson-Billings. Knowing one's heritage allows flexibility and opens alternatives to contribute to society, for both black and white students. Black students should be allowed the full chance to express blackness and humanity, said Ladson-Billings. Students afterwards praised the visiting professor's speech saying she highlighted some important issues that are not frequently addressed. "She pinpointed a very important topic," said Shirley Brown, a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Education. "Part of a teacher's job in the classroom is to act as an advocte for students, particulary for those minorities who have been silenced." "Now I know where to begin," said College junior Jay Mathews, an education major. "Not how to do it, but at least how to start."
(10/09/90 9:00am)
Arguing phrases from eccentrics and famous free spirits, nearly 150 students from over a dozen schools gathered for an annual debate tournament at the University. Debating bizarre topics based on everything from the poetry of e.e. cummings to the text of The Ugly Duckling, over 60 two-person teams flexed their wit and mental dexterity in the two-day tournament. The tournament centers around an extemporaneous form of debate, called Parliamentary debate, in which teams are given a prepared resolution and 10 minutes to construct arguments, for and against the resolution. After that time, the first team, called "the government," argues in favor of the resolution. The debaters must clearly connect their argument with the theme of the quotation in eight minutes. The oppostion then immediately counteracts for eight minutes, with no other time to prepare its response. Through the two-day tournament, teams were narrowed down to two finalists. From the five preliminary rounds to the finals, students debated arguments ranging from the necessity of a jury to whether or not the government should provide mental health care for ducks. The debaters of the latter argument won a copy of Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches in appreciation for their creativity. More than 60 teams from 16 schools attended the tournament while members of the University's student run Debate Council judged the matches on style and content. "They can't just say everything well," said College junior Amy Fisher, one of the two tournament directors. "They have to have a good argument." Fisher added that she was happy with the large turnout especially considering that Wesleyan University also held a tournament over the weekend. Princeton University seniors Adam Erlich and Robert Marks won the tournament on Saturday. And just as the seriousness of the debates differed, students' motives for debating also varied. "I like to argue," said Lisa Voelkel, a junior at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County. "I do this for fun."
