CHGS Annual Report 2019 2020 FINAL.Pdf
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21 2020 – 2019 From the DIRECTOR Follow CHGS Dear Friends, From July 2019 through July 2020, CHGS has had more than 150,000 impressions on Twitter and gained 386 new followers. During the 2019-2020 academic year, we witnessed a widespread The CHGS Facebook page grew by 98 fans and 255 new instability that left our social-emotional landscape changed. Like followers. More than 11,000 articles were accessed on the CHGS elsewhere, with the pandemic, the Center’s events and workshops blog by more than 8,300 users from 129 countries. Over the had to switch to virtual, but this opened new avenues for course of the year, there were 28 articles posted. The top 3 articles were: connection, collaboration and learning. Our summer has been particularly productive in this sense. We organized four webinars • “German Colonists also Separated Children from Their Parents” with community organizations that shed light on Khmer, Jewish, by Adam Blackler (August 21, 2019). Armenian and Ukrainian genocide survivor communities in our • “The Evangelical Ethic and the Spirit of Escapism” by Henning state (see pg. 3). We also hosted a two-day virtual workshop and Schroeder (February 20, 2020). discussion on Education as Reparative Justice for Indigenous • “Anti-semantics and Antisemitics” by Demetrios Vital (March genocide in Manitoba and Minnesota (see pg. 2) that brought 27, 2020). together teachers, scholars, and curators from both locations. (See the back cover for CHGS “in the News” feature) The academic year 2020-21 will also represent a departure from the norm, and not only because of the pandemic’s grip on our At a time of uncertainties and instability on all fronts, we personal and professional routines. The brutal murder of George affirm the Center’s mission and legacy in documenting the Floyd in Minneapolis sent shockwaves throughout the world. As it extremes of persecution, ensuring that victims do not have grapples with the needs for health safety and social distancing, our their histories denied, supporting brave and rigorous campus is still in its own way a center for activity and activism – scholarship, and connecting communities and individuals to even when classes and meetings are confined to the internet. Our critical knowledge and perspectives that will educate and students, staff and faculty have embraced the call for racial justice empower them. and the need to achieve a more equitable university. The reactions to protests and demands in the aftermath of the murder also Thank you for all you do to support this work. became an indicator of how deeply fractured US society is and, Alejandro Baer sadly, along potentially irreconcilable values. Stephen C. Feinstein Chair and Director Inside this issue 2 Research. 3 Students and Educators. 4 Scholarly and Public Program Listings. 5 People, Partners, and Friends. Photo left, Bdote walking tour at Fort Snelling State Park last October. One participant reflected, “The tour was incredibly helpful and informative, and Darlene St. Clair was so inviting of questions. I would love to bring my kids to a future tour -- we all have a lot to learn.” (Janet Walsh, senior fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs) CLoremHGS Accomplishments, Ipsum 2019-2020 Public Education on Indigenous Select Faculty Research Activity Dispossession and Reparative Justice Across Minnesota and Manitoba Alejandro Baer co-wrote chapters “Spain and the Holocaust: Contested Past, Contested Present” in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Holocaust (2020) and a chapter in Spain, World The Human Rights Lab subgrant project had an War II, and the Holocaust: History and Representation (2020). auspicious start this academic year. After the previous Gary B. Cohen published a review of William H. Hagen, Anti- summer's in-depth background research into the Jewish Violence in Poland, 1914-1920, in The Journal of Modern landscape of formal education in Manitoba and History (March 2020). Minnesota, our team, Alejandro Baer, George Dalbo, Joe Barbara Frey co-authored an article for the UMN journal Hispanic Eggers, and Jillian LaBranche, spent fall semester Issues Online, and wrote “Due Diligence to Prevent Foreseeable conducting key informant interviews with experts in the Harm: The International Human Rights Agenda on Civilian Gun field, and a focus group with social studies teachers, Violence” in the Washington University of Journal of Law and Policy making three trips to Winnipeg, Manitoba. During the (2019). She was awarded a Human Rights Initiative grant, and a Fulbright-Garcia Robles grant at the National Autonomous course of these trips we connected with the Manitoba University of Mexico to assess the impacts of responses to enforced Museum, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and disappearances in Mexico. presented at the annual meeting of the Manitoba Social Hiromi Mizuno co-instructed Global History of Word War II in Science Teachers' Association conference. Spring 2020, and prompted the visit of Ran Zwigenberg (see pg. 4). Leslie Morris co-wrote “Interrogating the Archive” in In We held a webinar that explored Indigenous Perspectives on History, Newsmagazine of the American Historical representation within educational institutions in both Association (December 2019) and moderated the discussion at our uniqueopportunities for interactingwith leadingexperts inthe field. Minnesota and Manitoba. Two renowned scholars, Kristallnacht commemorative performance (pg. 4). Karine Duhamel (Anishinaabe-Métis) (Canadian Museum Karen Painter wrote “Music and Memory on for Human Rights) and Iyekiyapiwin Darlene St. Clair Volkstrauertag/Heldengedenktag,” in Memory Studies (Springer, (Bdewakantunwan Dakota) (St. Cloud State University), 2020) and was invited to moderate the “War and Propaganda” panel discussed their work in Indigenous education, as well as at the American Musicological Society meeting (Boston). the limits and possibilities of education to serve both for Joachim J. Savelsberg was the featured speaker at the 105th anniversary commemoration of the Armenian genocide (April 24), and as reparative justice in both contexts. Research was held by the Armenian Cultural Organization of Minnesota. He presented at several conferences (see “Scholarly received a grant from the Human Rights Initiative on gendering Activities” at right), and in addition to planning to collective memories of mass violence for the case of Serbia, and continue and broaden the conversations in the future, the awards from the Society for the Study of Social Problems: 2019 Lee team is beginning to construct a resource guide covering Founders Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award (Crime and issues of Indigenous representation in formal public K-12 Delinquency Division). education in Minnesota. The resource guide aims to Daniel Schroeter co-instructed Global History of Word War II in organizingresearch workshops, offeringfellowships, and providing support the breadth of those people involved in decision- Spring 2020, and gave a keynote lecture on forced migration of by making around educational policy and implementation in Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews in Modern History at Ben-Gurion University Minnesota from classroom educators to legislators. (Israel). CHGS Collections Update guides graduate students students graduate guides The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) stewards a physical collection of art and artifacts related to the Holocaust, as well as a database, the CHGS Collections on “Elevator”. CHGS was awarded a Summer RA to work CHGS exclusively on implementing priority projects in Elevator. Funding for the RA-ship as well as project management support came from CLA Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services (LATIS). This summer's aim was to prepare and enhance the Elevator interface and metadata, in order to present the CHGS full collections to UMN and CLA faculty as a resource for digital learning on relevant content this Fall (and beyond). We connected Holocaust survivor records to best feature the unique testimonies and artwork across the CHGS collections (MN survivor records, Felix de la Concha’s portraits and videos of local survivors, and the Voice to Vision project). We also worked on including Library of Congress subject headings into our book collection, enhancing keyword searching and tagging. RESEARCH 12 3 GEO Scholar-to-Educator Program Educator Training The Genocide Education Outreach (GEO) Program Educators from around the state and world continue to access connects interested community educational institutions CHGS’s online resources. 350 Minnesota educators (high schools, religious communities, human rights organizations, public libraries, community colleges) downloaded “From the ‘Sioux Massacres’ to the ‘Dakota with qualified graduate students who can lead a guest Genocide’: Minnesota’s ‘Forgotten War’ in the State’s lecture or workshop session on a topic that matches Newspapers from 1862 to 2012.” Our most popular resource, n. community needs. CHGS places students with “Collective Responsibility & the International Community in community opportunities based on their area of the Rwandan Genocide: ‘The Blame Game,’” was downloaded specialization, facilitates session development and 3091 times over the past academic year. In addition we planning, and provides material and logistical support. During the 2019-2020 academic year, GEO reached offered the following workshops: over 250 students and educators: Educators at the State Capital during the July 29-August 2, • October – “The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 and its 2019