About the Center

Founded by Holocaust scholar and survivor Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth in 1986 with the mission of Teaching the Past, Changing the Future, the Holocaust Studies Program at UT Dallas has earned an international reputation for excellence. The Ackerman Center has grown into a distinguished and publicly-engaged academic center that offers an in-depth view of the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights studies within a dedicated facility. We provide an educational, engaging, and transformative experience for our diverse students, who carry our mission with them as educators, professionals, and leaders in America and around the world.

The Ackerman Center has five endowed faculty positions, which are complemented by additional part and full-time professors and lecturers. Our academic program is complemented by a substantial outreach program that includes free public events such as teacher workshops, film screenings, and lectures from distinguished scholars. With the recent rise of anti-Semitism and human rights violations, the lessons of the Holocaust are more important than ever in the 21st century. By advancing a continuous engagement with the past, the Ackerman Center will be a vital part of promoting solutions to the challenges to global justice and peace in our world.

Thanks to the generous support of its donors, the Ackerman Center is currently housed in a 3,500 square-foot facility located in the Erik Jonsson Academic Center. These facilities, officially dedicated in 2011, offer students a unique environment in which they can work that includes a reading room, media center, and places for both group and quiet study.

The Barbara Rabin Library located within the Ackerman Center provides access to many of the core texts and videos from the Arnold A. Jaffe Holocaust Library Collection and The Franklin H. Littell and Marcia Sachs Littell Collection relating to the study of the Holocaust. Because this is a non-lending library, the materials are always available for the students to reference.

The University of Texas at Dallas

Founded in 1969, The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) began as a modest collection of research stations in a North Texas cotton field. Today, UT Dallas’ footprint is vastly different, serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and the State of Texas as a global leader in innovative, high-quality research and education. Its mission is to 1) produce engaged graduates who are well-prepared for life, work, and leadership; 2) advance excellent educational and research programs in the natural and social sciences, engineering and technology, business, and arts and humanities; and 3) transform ideas into actions that benefit the economic, social, and cultural lives of the people of Texas.

Land Acknowledgement Statement

The Ackerman Center acknowledges the history and legacy of colonization. UT Dallas stands on land originally settled and occupied by the Caddo, Wichita and Comanche people. We recognize the history of UT Dallas begins with the forced removal of the indigenous people through the legacy of colonization.