Ken Waltzer

Biography

Kenneth Waltzer [Ph.D. History, Harvard U.] is Professor Emeritus of History in James Madison College and was Director of Jewish Studies from 2004 until August 2014. In recent years, he has won a State of Michigan Teaching Excellence Award, the Mid-Michigan Alumni Club Quality in Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the Outstanding Study Abroad Director Award in Arts and Letters. He was formerly Associate Dean and Interim Dean of James Madison College, and he directed the Center for Integrative Studies in Arts and Humanities. Professor Waltzer’s interests cover American social and political history, especially urban and immigration history, and also modern Jewish history in Europe, America, and Israel. He is recognized internationally for his current research and writing with Red Cross ITS documents and survivor testimonies and interviews in The Rescue of Children and Youth at Buchenwald. With K. Geissler, he developed The American Identity Explorer: Immigration and Migration CD-ROM (1998, 2001), and, with K. Fermaglich, he co-curated the award-winning exhibit (now traveling exhibit) at the MSU Museum, “Uneasy Years: Michigan Jewry During Depression and War.”  Recently, he was historical consultant to and appeared in the feature-length documentary film Kinderblock 66.