Biography

Dr. Rich is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Her research focuses on Holocaust education and memory. Her first book, Keepers of Memory: The Holocaust and Transgenerational Identity, reconceptualizes the ways in which Holocaust memories are transmitted from one generation to the next.

Dr. Rich teaches undergraduate courses, including Sociology of the Holocaust, and The American Response to the Holocaust, and graduate courses within the Masters program in Holocaust and Genocide Education.

Keepers of Memory on Amazon

Keepers of Memory answers the question of how descendants of Holocaust survivors remember the Holocaust, the event that preceded their birth but has shaped their lives. Through personal stories and in-depth interviews, Rich examines the complicated relationship between history, truth, and memory. Keepers of Memory explores topics that include how stories of survival become stories of either empowerment or trauma for the descending generations, career choice as a form of commemoration, religion, and family life. Ultimately, this work paints a compelling picture of the promises and pitfalls of memory and points to implications for memory and commemoration in the coming generations.

Politics, Education... on Amazon

This book offers an innovative perspective on the intersection of politics, education, and social problems. It considers how we can create social change by talking about politics and social problems in more open, direct, and inclusive ways in educational spaces. Drawing on data from a range of settings, this book closely examines how and when complicated conversations take place in classrooms, schools, and communities. The book tackles a series of hot-button, timely issues, including race, religion, politics, and gender, and turns a critical eye to schools and the communities in which they are situated; the conversations adults have―and pointedly ignore―with one another; and, perhaps most critically, the politics that shape our society.