Teaching About the Armenian Genocide: A Professional Development Workshop for Educators

Click Here to Register!

Workshop Description:

This one-day professional development seminar will provide support for teachers as they work to meet Wisconsin’s Act 30 genocide education mandate requirements for the classroom. During the day, educators will explore the interconnected histories of the Armenian Genocide, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the Armenian community of Wisconsin. 

Aimed at interested middle and high school educators in any discipline, this workshop will introduce ways to teach about genocide and mass violence comparatively, as well as heritage narratives-those histories with which students have a familial or cultural connection. 

Although intended for secondary-level educators, interested students of education and community members are welcome to register. 

Participation Cost:

• K-12 Educators: $15
• Community Members: $20
• Pre-Service Teachers: Free

• Examine the under-told history of the Armenian genocide and contemporary reverberations
• Connect with teachers across disciplines to discuss ways to incorporate genocide education in the classroom
• Discover the rich history of Armenians in Wisconsin
• Compare historical genocides and approaches to teaching genocide across contexts
• Explore the significant historical collection of WWI-era maps at UWM’s American Geographical Society Library
• Access free books, curricular resources and exciting raffle prizes
• Enjoy Armenian-inspired food and build local community connections

Speakers include:

• Sara Cohan, Education Coordinator at the National Association for Armenian Studies & Research
• George D. Dalbo, Ph.D., High School Social Studies Teacher, Clinton Community School District & Research Fellow, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota
• Winslow Martin, Storyteller and Photographer

Full bios are below.

We hope you’ll join us!

Please reach out to Nicole Palasz at palasz@uwm.edu with any questions.

Speaker Bios:

Sara Cohan currently serves as the Education Coordinator at NAASR. In the past, Cohan worked for The Genocide Education Project for seventeen years as their education director. Her background combines research, study, curriculum development and teaching. She has been a museum teacher fellow for the US Holocaust Museum and Memorial and worked extensively with the USC Shoah Foundation. In 2001, Cohan was named the research fellow for Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center and later she served on their advisory board in 2012. She also studied in Mexico as a recipient of a Fulbright-Hays scholarship and studied Islamic influences in Europe as a fellow for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was an expert lecturer at the Council of Europe’s European Youth Centre in Budapest in 2009 and has worked with the Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute in Yerevan. Cohan has written articles and designed educational materials for a variety of organizations and publications. She is the granddaughter of an Armenian Genocide survivor.

George Dalbo is a high school social studies teacher in a rural community in south-central Wisconsin. Currently, he teaches courses in world history, sociology, diversity studies, and genocide and human rights. In his nineteenth year in education, George has taught social studies in every grade from 5th-12th in public and private schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin and two years at an international school in Vienna, Austria. In addition to secondary students, George has taught genocide courses to college and adult learners and led professional development for practicing and pre-service teachers. George completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Social Studies Education with a minor in Human Rights at the University of Minnesota. George’s research broadly explores genocide and human rights education in the United States and Canada, especially focused on the question: what does it mean to teach and learn about genocide in a settler colonial nation-state?

Winslow Martin was born in suburban Philadelphia in 1954 and spent the formative years of his upbringing in Zurich and London. His exposure to the great museums and sites of Europe fueled a lifelong love of art and culture. After earning a BA in European History from Connecticut College, he taught High School history, before turning his attention to photography. Martin’s life as a photographer has been all about people, whether in his early years photographing the music scene in Boston, as Director of Photography at the Community Newspaper Company, or for the hundreds of commercial assignments he has taken over the years. He is best known for his ongoing work if the past 25 years documenting everyday life and historical events in Armenia. Martin is now pouring all of his energy into sharing his Armenian photos and stories with a broader audience. His purpose is simple- to bring greater attention and support to Armenia today.  More information is available at https://www.winslowmartin.com/.