Pitt-Bradford's Brinda Publishes Paper

A paper by Dr. Wayne Brinda, assistant professor of education at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, will appear in the proceedings of the Teaching the Holocaust in Catholic Schools Sixth Holocaust Education Conference at Seton Hill University.

Brinda’s paper, “Going Beyond the Cognitive Domain: 21st Century Students Make Discoveries About the Holocaust,” highlights the tendency among students to believe that right answers exist for every problem and can be memorized.

Brinda shares how an interactive, international videoconference between a Holocaust survivor and author and students allowed students and members of the community to confront truths with the author, who shared her experiences and posed moral and ethical questions.

“The videoconference made a positive impact on the lives of Pitt-Bradford students and the community,” Brinda said.

In March 2009, students from Brinda’s Adolescent Literature course held a conference with Dr. Livia Bitton-Jackson, Holocaust survivor, international lecturer and author, who spoke with those gathered on campus from her home in Israel. Members of the campus and local communities attended, also.

Brinda has made a specialty out of teaching Holocaust literature to adolescents. He earned his Doctorate of Education in education leadership from Duquesne University and is a former Museum Teacher Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

He has conducted research on using young adult literature and the theater to teach adolescents about the Holocaust. His articles and presentations have been published by and presented at Jagiellonian University in Poland, Seton Hill, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literature, The ALAN Review, the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Middle School Association, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and the International Reading Association.