Join Cynthia Peterman for a Deep Dive into the 1936 Olympic Boycott

For more than two decades, educator Cynthia Peterman has helped learners engage deeply with history. After years as a classroom teacher, she transitioned in 2012 to public-facing work. As a Museum Teacher Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, she co-led a multi-year initiative tied to Americans and the Holocaust.

That work led to one of Cynthia’s most compelling courses: an examination of the 1936 Olympic boycott debate. Despite decades teaching Holocaust history, she was struck by how little she knew about the international controversy surrounding the Berlin Games.

Her research uncovered how later leaders reassessed 1936, with figures such as the West German ambassador to NATO and the U.S. Secretary of State suggesting a boycott might have altered history—an idea Cynthia calls “profound.”

In her upcoming Oasis class, Cynthia will bring this moment to life. “Nothing is ever truly politically neutral,” she notes, using history to prompt enduring questions: What is the U.S. responsibility in times of international crisis? When do global events become moral crossroads?

Ultimately, Cynthia hopes students see how history reverberates forward—and how understanding past debates equips us to face the present with greater clarity and conscience.