The WVU Center for Democracy and Citizenship Education (CDCE) will kick-off a month-long exhibition on Oct. 4, titled, “Anne Frank: A History for Today,” developed by the Anne Frank House and sponsored in North America by The Anne Frank Center USA.

The traveling exhibit will be brought to West Virginia University’s campus by Dr. Robert Waterson of the CDCE and will be on display in Ruby Grand Salon A and the Nutting Gallery at the WVU Erickson Alumni Center. The exhibit will be available for general public viewing as well as for providing a culminating activity for the state’s schools.

The CDCE will also sponsor a teacher workshop and presentations aimed at providing a modern context to the information presented in the exhibit and will include well-designed civic education programs to help teachers to implement their own curricula. The teacher workshop, led by Dr. Waterson and Beth Slepian, the school programs manager of the Anne Frank exhibit, will take place October 3rd from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Ballroom A/Gallery of the WVU Erickson Alumni Center.

Admittance for the general public begins October 4 and ends October 31. The exhibit will be open to the public from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. Admittance for school trips begins October 6 and ends October 29.

The exhibit will be available to schools from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Guided tours will be provided to the public by Dr. Waterson and his wife, Luann Waterson, and school tours will be guided by Dr. Waterson’s fourth-and fifth-year social studies methodology students at the CEHS, who will undergo official training from the Anne Frank Foundation in preparation for their service.

On Sunday, October 4 from 2 to 3 p.m., the director of the WVU Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, Dr. Jennifer Orlikoff, will present “The Societal Implications of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Woman.” On Sunday, October 11th, from 2 to 3 p.m., Dr. Waterson will discuss “Anne Frank: An Essential Study for Today.”

Dr. Waterson believes that it is one of the missions of the CDCE to introduce programs like “Anne Frank: A History for Today” to the citizens of West Virginia.

“Bringing Anne Frank and her story to Morgantown, West Virginia, will help our youth identify and relate to specific events that have helped to define us as a nation and as a people,” says Waterson. He added that this program will also serve to “remind us of the tremendous responsibility we hold as American citizens to respect and be tolerant of all people, despite our perceived differences.”

Beyond educating West Virginians on the dangers of intolerance, Dr. Waterson plans to use Anne Frank’s story to promote literacy in the state. Each of the eleven participating schools will receive copies of David Colbert’s book, 10 Days: Anne Frank, which outlines ten influential events during the Holocaust that changed Anne’s life and the course of history.

Dr. Waterson hopes that the highly-accessible book will engage young students further in Anne’s story, while also presenting a less daunting and more age-appropriate alternative to Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Woman, which has a high reading Lexile and adult themes that can prove difficult for young kids to grasp.

-WVU-

EC/8/23/15

CONTACT: Christie Zachary, Director of Marketing and Communication, College of Education and Human Services
Phone: 304-293-0224, Christie.Zachary@mail.wvu.edu

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