A West Virginia University history professor will participate next month in a national seminar on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in France.

Steven Zdatny, an associate professor in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, is among 22 American college professors selected for the Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar Jan. 5-11 at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Zdatny was chosen by the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, which is providing a grant�€in�€aid to defray the costs of his participation.

This years program will be led by two eminent scholars: Vicki Caron, chair of Jewish Studies at Cornell University, and Henry Rousso, director of the Institut dhistoire du temps present (IHTP) at the National Scientific Research Center in Paris. Zdatny was a visiting scholar at the IHTP in 2001.

The mission of the Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar is to strengthen Holocaust teaching at higher education institutions. Edward and David Hess established the program in memory of their parents, Jack and Anita Hess, who believed in the power of education to overcome racial and religious prejudice.