People

Staff

Joe Eggers

Interim Director

Joe Eggers joined the center in 2015 as a graduate assistant and staff member in 2018. In addition to his role as Interim Director, Joe coordinates the outreach efforts for the center, including developing connections with local communities and educators. He's especially interested in exploring the legacies of settler colonialism and how they are taught in classrooms.

George Dalbo

Research Fellow

George Dalbo is currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota and a high school social studies teacher in rural south-central Wisconsin. With 15+ years of teaching experience, George has taught social studies in every grade from 5th-12th in public, charter, and private schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin and two years at a public school in Vienna, Austria. George earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction - Social Studies Education with a minor in Human Rights from the University of Minnesota. Broadly, his research examines Holocaust, genocide, and human rights education in US and Canadian classrooms and curricula. Previously, George served as the Educational Outreach Coordinator and a Research Assistant for CHGS. 

Jillian LaBranche

Research Assistant, and PhD Candidate (Sociology)

Jillian LaBranche is a PhD Candidate in Sociology and a current UMN dissertation doctoral fellow. Her research uses comparative methods to examine how knowledge is constructed at the intersections of collective memory, violence, and education. Her dissertation research seeks to understand how Rwandan and Sierra Leonean educators educate younger generations about the Rwandan Genocide and Sierra Leone Civil War, respectively. Her research has been supported by the US Fulbright Student Program, the American Sociological Association, the Fern and Bernard Badzin Fellowship, and the National Academy of Education/Spencer. Jillian has worked closely with CHGS, serving as the managing blog editor from 2019-2021, as a Research Assistant on various projects, and participating in the Genocide Education Outreach program. In collaboration with the Center, she has helped design educator workshops and the Rwandan Genocide Educator Guide.

Tibisay Navarro-Mana

Research Assistant, and PhD Candidate (History)

Tibisay Navarro-Mana is a PhD candidate in the History Department. Originally from Spain, her research focuses on the intersections between politics of historical memory and violations of human rights during the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist regime in Spain. She is currently working as a research assistant for the Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota and preparing to conduct long-term archival research in Spain.
 

Carlo Tognato

Research Fellow

Carlo Tognato is currently Research Fellow at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. He has been Senior Policy Fellow at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University as well as Director of the Center for Social Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology at the National University of Colombia, Bogota. His research focuses on civil reconstruction, civil degradation, civil courage, and civil intervention. His latest publications include The Courage for Civil Repair: Narrating the Righteous in International Migration (with B. N. Jaworsky and J. C. Alexander, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2020), Sociedad, cultura y la esfera civil (with Nelson Arteaga-Botello, FLACSO-Mexico, 2019), The Civil Sphere in Latin America (with J. C. Alexander, Cambridge University Press, 2018), and Cultural Agents Reloaded: The Legacy of Antanas Mockus (The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2017).

Michael Winikoff

Education Fellow

Michael Winikoff is a visual artist, writer, and educator who uses arts-based approaches to help students and teachers explore themes of historical remembrance, human rights, and democracy. From 2015 to 2023, he directed the Science Communication Lab, an interdisciplinary internship program for student writers, scientists, artists, and designers. He is a member of the University's Human Rights Lab and a Fellow at the Institute on the Environment (IonE).
As the principal of Hollander Snow Studio, a public interest communication and design firm, Michael supports organizations like the Treatment Action Group, the Arts for Justice Initiative, and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.