Thomas Pegelow Kaplan
History • Jewish Studies

ÌýOffice: Hellems 219
ÌýOffice Hours:ÌýBy appointment (in-person or Zoom)

Access Pegelow Kaplan's CV Here

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Professor of History and Louis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History


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In Fall 2024, Prof. Pegelow Kaplan is on a research/writing semester.

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About Prof. Pegelow Kaplan:

Professor Pegelow Kaplan teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate level on the Holocaust, modern Jewish history, Central European history, historical methodology and theory, and transnational history. These classes include "Global History of Holocaust and Genocide," "Jewish History Since 1492," "Antisemitism: Concepts, Discourses, Practices," "Nazi Germany and the Holocaust," and "The Global 1960s: Student, Youth, and Worker Protests and the Reshaping of the World" (course currently 'under construction') along with various undergraduate and graduate seminars. He holds the Louis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History and is also a part of the Jewish Studies Program.

Professor Pegelow Kaplan received his B.A. (equivalent) at Eberhard-Karls University Tübingen, Germany, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Modern European History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author ofÌýÌý(Cambridge University Press, 2009; Russian edition: Boston: Academic Studies Press, forthcoming 2025),Ìý, which explores how words preceded, accompanied, and made mass murder possible.Ìý His latest study entitledÌýÌý[in Hebrew] appeared with Yad Vashem Publications in late 2023. It calls for a reassessment of the work of German Jewish journalists, provides a methodological apparatus for this undertaking, and offers case studies of networks from Paris and Berlin to Manila. Prof. Pegelow Kaplan co-editedÌýÌý(with Wolf Gruner) (Berghahn Books, 2020) that presents a profound reinterpretation of Jewish petitioningÌý practices. The volume demonstrates howÌýentreaties by tens of thousands of Jews in German-controlled Europe were anything but futile. Instead, they helped their authors to reassert their agency and withstand Nazi onslaughts. In addition, he is the co-editor (with Jürgen Matthäus) ofÌýÌý(2019) and (with Thomas Köhler, Jürgen Matthäus et al.) ofÌýÌý(2023).ÌýÌýHis next co-edited collections entitledÌýRethinking Modern Jewish History and Memory Through PhotographyÌý(with Ofer Ashkenazi) andÌýHolocaust Testimonies: Reassessing Survivors’ Voices and their Future in Challenging TimesÌý(with Wolf Gruner, Miriam Offer, and Boaz Cohen) will be published in 2025 by SUNY Press and Bloomsbury respectively. Professor Pegelow Kaplan's scholarly articles have appeared inÌý Baeck Institute Year Book, Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, the Tel Aviv Yearbook for German History, Contemporary European History, The Journal of Holocaust Research, Zeithistorische Forschungen, Bishvil Hazikaron and many other venues. Pegelow Kaplan is currently working on a study of post-1945 protest movements and their appropriation of genocide language and a book on a global history of the Holocaust.ÌýHe has received fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, among others. Professor Pegelow Kaplan also held positions as a visiting research fellow at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig and -- since 2016 -- the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin.

Professor Pegelow Kaplan is accepting both M.A. and Ph.D. students.

Areas of Research Related to Jewish Studies:

Professor Pegelow Kaplan specializes in Holocaust studies, modern German-Jewish history, histories of violence, language, and culture of Central Europe, and transnational history.

Courses Taught:

  • Global History of Holocaust and Genocide (HIST/JWST/RLST 1830)

  • Seminar in Modern European History (HIST 3012)

  • Internship in Jewish Studies (JWST 3930)

  • Topics in Jewish History: Antisemitism: Concepts, Discourses, Practices (HIST/JWST 4348)

Recent and Forthcoming Publications (Selected):

Rethinking Modern Jewish History and Memory Through Photography, co-ed. with Ofer Ashkenazi. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, forthcoming 2025.

Holocaust Testimonies: Reassessing Survivors’ Voices and their Future in Challenging Times, co-ed. with Wolf Gruner, Miriam Offer, and Boaz Cohen. London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2025.

","ÌýLeo Baeck Institute Year BookÌýLXIXÌý(2024).

Ìý(Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Publications, 2024) [in Hebrew]

, eds. Thomas Pegelow Kaplan and Wolf Gruner (New York: Berghahn, 2023) [new paperback edition]

, eds. Thomas Koehler, Juergen Matthaeus, Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, and Peter Roemer (Paderborn: Brill Schoeningh, 2023)