Teaching about Genocide

Dr. Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira

Dr. Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Ohio State. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters about genocide, transitional justice, and human rights. She is currently finalizing a book (with Oxford University Press) on the reintegration of Rwandans who were incarcerated for committing genocide. Dr. Nyseth Nzitatira is the 2023 recipient of the International Association of Genocide Scholars Engaged Scholar Award and creates educational context for high-school educators teaching about genocide. She is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Atrocity Crimes and the Editor in Chief of the International Association of Genocide Scholars Policy Brief Initiative. Dr. Nyseth Nzitatira also conducts atrocity forecasting for the U.S. government and runs an education abroad program in Rwanda.

Dr. Katherine Southwick

Dr. Katherine Southwick is an international legal scholar and consultant on rule of law, atrocity prevention, and human rights.  For two decades, she has combined research, advocacy, and program management in the U.S., Africa, Asia, and Europe, working for organizations such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Refugees International, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.  Since 2012, Katherine has written and spoken about the risks and challenges facing the Rohingya, including genocide, for academic and general audiences.  She has consulted for Burmese/Rohingya human rights organizations and the Malaysian Foreign Ministry, and assisted Burmese/Rohingya activists and international film-makers on a tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland for the 2020 documentary, “Auschwitz: Lessons Never Learned.”  Most recently, Katherine was the key researcher and co-author for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s resources on Criminal Justice Approaches for Preventing Mass Atrocities, freely available online.  In this role, she also managed a year-long mentorship program for Nigerian police officers implementing atrocity prevention plans in the context of herder-farmer and extremist violence.  Katherine holds a B.A. and a J.D. from Yale University, as well as a PhD in legal theory from the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law.

Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj

Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj is a journalist, social anthropologist, and international spokeswoman she has been at the forefront in struggles for respect for indigenous cultures. She was Executive Director of the Mecanismo de los Pueblos Indígenas Oxlajuj Tzikin (Support Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples) (2005-2013). Dr. Velásquez Nimatuj is the first Maya-K’iche’ woman to earn the doctorate in Social Anthropology and she initiated the court case that made racial discrimination illegal in Guatemala. She has won numerous academic fellowships and awards for her journalism, She was a member of the Latin American Consulting Group of Indigenous Leaders for UNICEF and participates in the UN through the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  She also served as advisor on indigenous issues for the Latin American and Caribbean office of UN Women (2014-2015). She is the author of Pueblos Indígenas, Estado y Lucha por Tierra en Guatemala (AVANCSO 2008) and La pequeña burguesía indígena comercial de Guatemala  Desigualdades de clase, raza y género(AVANCSO-SERJUS 2002).  She writes a weekly newspaper column in elPeriódico de Guatemala and through both her political and academic efforts seeks to create viable and realistic ways to create equality for indigenous people and a truly democratic and participatory democracy in Guatemala.

Kate Weckesser English

Kate is the Executive Director of Educators’ Institute for Human Rights (EIHR) and has served EIHR in executive leadership and board positions since EIHR’s inception in 2011. Kate taught for 18 years in Connecticut and Virginia public schools and has been recognized as District-wide Teacher of the Year, received the Joseph Zola Holocaust Educator Award, and serves as a Museum Teacher Fellow for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Kate attended Summer University Srebrenica, served as a Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Fellow in Ukraine through IREX and the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, as well as a Positive Peace Ambassador with the Institute for Economics and Peace

Kelley Szany

Kelly is the Senior Vice President of Education and Exhibitions at Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. During her over 20-year tenure Szany has become an internationally recognized leader in Holocaust, genocide, and museum education. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Holocaust Organizations and Educators Institute for Human Rights. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Illinois Holocaust & Genocide Commission. Szany has won multiple awards for her educational and human rights work, including the Samuel Goldsmith Award from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Damen Award from the Graduate School at Loyola University of Chicago, and the Carl Wilkens Fellowship where she worked alongside national leaders to create and strengthen a permanent anti-genocide constituency through both advocacy work and influence of U.S. policy. Executive Producer and Producer of ten documentary and virtual reality films on the Holocaust, her work has been nominated for a Midwest Emmy and awarded official selections at film festivals across the globe, including Venice International Film Festival, London International Film Festival, and SXSW. Szany is also the author of scores of journalistic pieces and scholarly chapters, with recent publications in Teaching About Genocide: Insights and Advice from Secondary Teachers and Professors