Faculty

Dr. Zohara Boyd

Dr. Zohara Boyd was born in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, April 17, 1942. 

Piotrkow was the first ghetto established by the Nazis after Germany invaded Poland. Zohara Boyd’s family obtained false baptismal certificates and managed to escape to Warsaw shortly before the general deportations to Auschwitz began. She and her parents survived the war by “walking on the Aryan side” as hiding in plain sight was called.

Dr. Boyd has a Ph.D. in Early American Literature from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and has taught at Appalachian State University since 1977. In 2003 she was named Co-Director of the Office of Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies.

Dr. Rennie Brantz

Dr. Rennie Brantz attended Doane College in Nebraska, earned a Ph.D. in History in 1973 from The Ohio State University, and studied at the Universities of Munich and Bonn. He began teaching German history at Appalachian State University in 1973, where he was promoted to the rank of Professor in 1989. He directed Appalachian’s Freshman Seminar program from 1990 to 2004 while continuing to teach history.  Brantz’s teaching and research focus since 1995 has been Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He has held the I.G. Greer Professorship in History, received grants from the German Government (DAAD), National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Commission.  In 1997, he was named Outstanding Freshman Advocate by the National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience, and in 2002 he received the University of North Carolina's Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2003 he was named Co-Director of the Office of Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies.

Dr. Rosemary Horowitz

Dr. Horowitz earned her Ed.D., at the University of Massachusetts and is an Associate Professor in the Department of English. Dr. Horowitz is the daughter of East European Polish Jews who survived the Nazi Holocaust.  She spent 10 years researching survivors’ stories and in 1991 observed a Nazi war crime trial. She is the author of “Literacy and Cultural Transmission in the Reading, Writing, and Rewriting of Jewish Memorial Books.”

 

Ms. Amy C. Hudnall

Amy C. Hudnall is the Coordinator of Peace Studies for the Center of Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies and a part-time professor in the History Department and in Women's Studies at Appalachian State University. Her research focuses on cross-cultural trauma and genocide. Most of her work is applied so that she can use her historical background as a tool to help NGOs and human rights practitioner find positive and healing resolution in today's conflicts. Ms. Hudnall teaches courses on genocide, cultural and women's history, and peace and conflict. She received her M.A. in history at Appalachian State University and also studied at the Bayerische Julius-Maximilian-Universität in Germany. She has published on captivity trauma, women's rights, human rights, secondary trauma, cultural relativism, and cross-cultural conflict. Among her many public presentations she recently was invited to present as part of a round table on "How to Educate Our Children About Peace" at UNESCO, Paris, at the World Movement of Mothers 60th Anniversary Congress. She is the
co-editor of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies and the 
book review editor for H-Genocide.