Holocaust and Genocide Studies Faculty
World-Renowned Experts on Atrocity Prevention and Human Rights
The Intersectionality of Atrocity Crimes
Dr. Kevin Bales CMG
Kevin Bales CMG is the world’s leading scholar in contemporary slavery. He is Professor of Contemporary Slavery and Research Director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, UK.
He was a co-founder of Free the Slaves in Washington, D.C. and co-author of the Global Slavery Index.
In his Pulitzer-nominated book, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, and its subsequent film titled Slavery: A Global Investigation, Bales went undercover to expose how modern slavery penetrates the global economy.
Bales is the author of Understanding Global Slavery, Ending Slavery, and Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World.
Working with Communities After Trauma
Dr. Kate Gibeault
Dr. Kate Gibeault is the Director of the Cohen Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College.
She holds a BA in religious studies and English from Connecticut College, as well as a MTS in religion, ethics, and politics, and a ThD in religion and society from Harvard.
Trained as an anthropologist of religion, DeConinck’s expertise is in religion and meaning-making in the wake of mass atrocities.
She serves as co-chair of the Teaching Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion, as an advisor to the Pluralism Project at Harvard, and as a member on the NH Commission for Holocaust and Genocide Education.
International Human Rights and Security
Dr. Henok Gabisa
Dr. Henok Gabisa is the Founding Partner and Attorney-at-Law at Gabisa Law Firm, L.L.C., in Maryland. He holds a doctor of juridical science degree from St. Thomas University School of Law.
He is a leading expert in the reform of justice systems in post-conflict Africa and author of the forthcoming book, Justice System Reform Programs in Post-Conflict Africa: Ethiopia.
Gabisa has taught courses on International Human Rights Law, Ethiopian Criminal Procedure Law, Anti Corruption and Global Good Governance, and Transnational Criminal Tribunals.
As Professor of Practice at Washington and Lee University School of Law, he represented the University at the United Nations and held a UN Special Consultative Status.
Film, Genocide, and Resistance
Dr. Lisa DiGiovanni
Dr. Lisa DiGiovanni received her PhD from the University of Oregon in romance languages after earning a MA in Spanish at Middlebury College. She specializes in 20th-21st century Latin American and Spanish Peninsular literature and film.
Her current work focuses on creative responses to the causes and consequences of torture in 20th century Spain and Chile and traces a link between militarized masculinity and the use of state violence as a method of social control.
Dr. DiGiovanni authored Unsettling Nostalgia in Spain and Chile, where she proposed the concept of “unsettling nostalgia” to understand how authors and filmmakers represent memories of the pre-dictatorial pasts in Spain and Chile, as well as the leftist resistance to the military regimes of Francisco Franco (1939-1975) and Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
Preventing Genocide
Dr. Ashley L. Greene
Dr. Ashley Greene is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College, and Graduate Program Coordinator.
Greene holds a dual PhD in peace studies and history from the University of Notre Dame, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, where she specialized in transitional justice and 20th century East Africa.
She has designed atrocity-prevention training programs for policymakers and civil society actors in eight countries in Africa’s Great Lakes region and has worked with the United Nations on initiatives to advance Holocaust and genocide education in Africa.
She is a lead contributor to the Edinburgh-Brown Legal Guidelines on the Legal Parameters of Genocide and co-author of the forthcoming book, PeaceTalk: A Compendium of Hope.
Global Refugee Crises
Mick Hirsch
Mick Hirsch has worked in the field of trauma recovery with an emphasis on sexual and gender-based violence for over 20 years.
He studied at University of Chicago, Yale University Divinity School, Harvard University Program in Refugee Trauma, and European Graduate School, completed a residency in Psychiatric Chaplaincy at Care & Counseling Center of Georgia and is certified in statelessness law from Tilburg University School of Law.
Hirsch has experience as a psychiatric chaplain and crisis interventionist, supporting refugee resettlement and providing holistic trauma recovery and economic empowerment services to Uganda’s women survivors.
Preventing Identity-based Violence through Education
Dr. Edward Kissi
Dr. Edward Kissi is a full professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies at University of South Florida. He holds a PhD in history from Concordia University.
In 2009, Kissi was invited by the United Nations to write “The Holocaust as a Guidepost for Genocide Detection and Prevention in Africa” for the landmark United Nations’ Discussion Papers Journal.
He has since been involved in major national and international activities on Holocaust and Genocide Education, including UNESCO’s ongoing initiatives on Holocaust and Genocide Education in Africa.
Kissi wrote Africans and the Holocaust, which integrates African perspectives into Holocaust Studies and Holocaust content into Africana Studies.
Archives and Human Rights
Rodney Obien
Rodney Obien curates the school’s Holocaust & Genocide Studies Collection and the Orang Asli Archive of Indigenous Peoples of Peninsular Malaysia.
Obien completed his graduate work in Library and Information Science at the Catholic University of America and is an alumnus of the Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
Obien has held archival and curatorial posts at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, State University at Buffalo, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Holocaust Historiography
Dr. Dana Smith
Dr. Dana Smith received her PhD from Queen Mary University of London in affiliation with the Leo Baeck Institute, London, where she held the John A.S. Grenville Postgraduate Studentship in Modern German Jewish History and Culture.
Her book, Jewish Art in Nazi Germany (Routledge, 2022), explored the intersections of gendered and regional Jewish self-identity through the artistic programming of the Jewish Cultural League in Bavaria (1933-1938).
Her next project, tentatively titled The Führer and the Bard: Shakespeare in Nazi Germany, is an integrative history of Shakespeare scholarship, performance, and reception in Nazi Germany that examines the role of the arts in racial policy, German-British relations, international cultural transmission, and identity formation.
Contact Us
Dr. Ashley L. Greene
Ashley.Greene@keene.edu
