INSTITUTE STAFF
 |
J. D. Bowers (Ph.D., Indiana University), Institute Director, is an Assistant Professor of History at Northern Illinois University and Director of the Secondary Teacher Certification for History and Social Sciences. His teaching and research interests include religion, genocide and human rights, public history, and social studies curriculum development. Professor Bowers has been awarded many grants including a Fulbright Grant and the Woodrow Wilson/Carnegie Foundation for the improvement of history teaching. He serves as a historian-in-residence, consultant, and advisor for three different Teaching American History grants serving more than fifty-five schools and nearly 200 teachers; he has also received several distinguished teaching awards. |
 |
Roger Smith (PhD., University of California, Berkeley ),Professor of Government Emeritus, College of William and Mary, is one of the country's foremost experts on genocide, is widely-published on this topic. He is known for his seminal article “American Self-Interest and the Response to Genocide,” which appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education in July, 2004. More specifically, he has written about the Armenian genocide and women and genocide. He has served as President of the International Association for Genocide Scholars, chairman of the Zoryan Institute's Academic Board of Directors, and as a council member of the Institute on the Holocaust. |
| |
Anthony Guzzaldo (Thompson Junior High, St. Charles, IL.), Tony teaches social studies at Thompson Junior High School in Oswego, Illinois, where he teaches world history and world geography. Tony has been writing genocide curriculum units and teaching genocide for two years and was a presenter at the 2007 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) annual meeting in San Diego where he presented on “Teaching Genocide in the 21st Century.” Tony was the recipient of the J. Patrick White Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2007. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air National Guard and has served two tours in Iraq. Tony is a member of the Genocide and Human Rights Institute’s Advisory Board. |
 |
Eric Jones (PhD., University of California, Berkeley ), Eric specializes in the study of Southeast Asia, Colonial Empires, Gender, Sexuality and Women. He is working on a book about the female underclass in Southeast Asia, called, Wives, Slaves and Concubines. He is very interested in the social changes to the lower orders accompanying dramatic shifts in the economic structures surrounding them, including violence and genocidal actions. Eric recently spent a year as a Fulbright professor in Malaysia and has become very interested in the role of Islam in Southeast Asia. |
| |
Nancy Keiser (EdD., Northern Illinois University), Nancy is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Teacher Education at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. She also serves as the Curriculum advisor for the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at NIU. Dr. Keiser is a member of the Genocide and Human Rights Institute’s Advisory Board. |
 |
Judy Ledgerwood (PhD., Cornell), Professor Ledgerwood is an Associate Professor and Department Chair in Anthropology. She is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests include gender, refugee and diaspora communities, and the transnational movements of people and ideas. Her current research is focused on Cambodian Buddhism and ideas of cultural identity. Professor Ledgerwood's dissertation was on changing Khmer conceptions of gender in Khmer refugee communities in the United States. After she completed her degree, she taught and conducted research in Cambodia for three and a half years. |
 |
Kathryn Maley (Northern Illinois University), Kate has been a middle school teacher and a university instructor for five years. Kate has worked with teachers through professional development programs, including Teaching American History grants, curriculum development, and student teacher training. In 2006 Kate wrote a curriculum unit on the Cambodian genocide. Kate has been working on a research project on the intersection of religion, race, and education. |
| |
Christoper J. Nemic (X High School, Chicago, IL), CJ teaches Genocide as a full semester course at X High School in Chicago. CJ has had great success teaching his students to understand justice, redress, and forgiveness in genocide through explorations of S-21 and the gacaca courts in Rwanda. |
 |
Brett H. Weiss (Bartlett High School, Bartlett, IL), Brett teaches U.S. History, Current World Problems and Honors Economics at Bartlett High School. He grew up in a largely Jewish neighborhood on the south side of Chicago in the 1950's and 1960's where talk of The Holocaust in Europe was almost non-existent even though the neighborhood had many Holocaust survivors. Brett was a participant in the first Genocide Institute in 2006. The teaching of genocide is the centerpiece of his Current World Problems Class and also has a role in his other two classes. Increasing and improving the teaching of genocide in our schools is one of his passionate priorities. Brett is a member of the Genocide and Human Rights Institute’s Advisory Board. |
 |
Christine Worobec (PhD., University of Toronto), Christine specializes in Modern European history (Russia and Ukraine), agrarian societies, gender, sexuality and women, nationalism, identity and religion. In addition to working on a biography of St. Serafim of Sarov, Christine has embarked on a long-term project entitled Moving Faith: Pilgrimages in Modern Russia and Ukraine. Supported by a 2006 NEH fellowship, this interdisciplinary study, involving cultural, social, and gender analysis, will examine Orthodox pilgrimages to holy sites within Russia and Ukraine as well as abroad from 1700 to the present. | |
