Research Interests

Ryan Abt is a Ph.D. candidate in United States history who specializes in representations of the Holocaust in the US educational systems.  He considers the changing nature of American educator’s understanding and presentation of materials related to the murder of Europe’s Jews.  By analyzing documents outside those of popular culture, he can determine the moments during which American engagement with Holocaust memory altered and determine likely causes for those changes.

Accomplishments

Article Publications in Refereed Journals:

• “’No Propaganda Story’: The Prehistory of American Holocaust Consciousness in Textbooks, 1940-1962″ is currently set for publication in the summer of 2019’s edition of the Yearbook of Transnational History. 

Presentations

• “In a Democracy and in a Dictatorship: Representing the Murder of Europe’s Jews in New York City Public Education, 1945-1965” at the Society for the Study of Curriculum History Annual Conference (2019).
• “Saving the World: Employing Holocaust Rhetoric in America’s Post-Cold War Foreign Policy” at the  Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Conference (2018).
• “Teaching Holocaust Memory: The Formation and Use of Holocaust Memory in American Textbooks” at the  60th Missouri Valley History Conference (2017).

Awards:

• Glasscock Graduate Research Fellowship (2019-2020)
• Texas A&M Department of History Dissertation Research Grant (2019)
• Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellowship (2018)
• Glasscock Center for Humanities Research Nelson-Calvert-Krammer Award (2017)