University of Rochester (Ph.D., 1978)

Phone: 201-783-5393 

E-Mail: dklein@kean.edu 

  dklein.mail@gmail.com

Biography

ilDr. Dennis B. Klein is Scholar in Residence at the Carter School of Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University; certified philosopher practitioner; Kean University Professor of History emeritus; director of the Jewish Studies program (1998-2023); and director of the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies program (2012-2023). He is the author or editor of five books, including Jewish Origins of the Psychoanalytic Movement (University of Chicago Press, 1985), Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto (Little, Brown in cooperation with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1997), The Genocidal Mind (Paragon, 2005), Survivor Transitional Narratives of Nazi-Era Destruction: The Second Liberation (Bloomsbury, 2017) and Societies Emerging from Conflict: The Aftermath of Atrocity (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017). He is founding editor in chief of Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies and founding director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Braun Center for Holocaust Studies. He is a Fulbright-Hays Fellow, Phi Beta Kappa,   and recipient of numerous research awards. Dr. Klein is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities, Dictionary of International Biography, and Directory of American Scholars. In 2006 he was a Research Fellow at the University College London and Resident Fellow at Oxford University. During his sabbatical, he was appointed a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in 2014 and a Scholar in Residence at George Mason University's Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution in 2023.  His work on post-atrocity testimonies and forgiveness theory is anthologized in Memory, Narrative, and Forgiveness (Cambridge Scholars Publishing), the 10th anniversary Truth and Reconciliation Commission conference volume, and Jean Améry and the Philosophy of Torture (Lexington Books). He guest-edited a special issue of Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques on witnesses’ accounts of violence and violations, to which he contributed an article on the local theater and subjective accounts of the destruction process. At present he is developing research for three articles: "The Rupture of Relationships: Holocaust Survivors on Complicit Bystanders," “The January 6th Insurrection: Rethinking Conflict Dynamics” (with D. Rothbart), and “Mitigating Volatility in Conflict Circumstances” (a George Mason University-Liberty University encounter project). In June, 2021, he  led a two-week seminar on “The Search for Humanity after Atrocity,” supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He frequently presents his research abroad, as well as in the US, including in Cape Town; Jerusalem; Oxford; London; New Delhi (by Skype); Poznan; Tel Aviv; and Wenzhou, China (by Skype).  He is a consulting partner of the Trust Network and Culture and Society chair of the Commission on Nations and States. Locally, he is a trustee of his town’s Board of Education, father of three adult children, and grandfather of seven.