2018-2019 Practitioners in Residence

Fall 2018: Patricia Perez Valdes | Tibi Galis | Nicolas Habarugira | Adam Lupel

Tamara Reps Freeman

Holocaust ethnomusicologist, music educator and recitalist. Musicologist for the International Association of Holocaust Organizations. As a teacher, professor, recitalist, conductor, commemoration artistic director and writer, her mission is genocide prevention through imparting the lessons of archival Holocaust music. Doctorate (D.M.A.) from Rutgers University. Her dissertation, Encouraging Racial Respect Through Holocaust Music: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum, is the first and only Holocaust music curriculum for students in Kindergarten through 12th grade in the United States.

Reps Freeman is on campus March 4-8, 2019. She will be holding a public recital on Thursday, March 7th at 5pm in the University Art Museum. Consult our events page for more information.

For more information about Tamara Reps Freeman and her work, please visit her website.

Savita Pawnday

Deputy Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.

Pawnday oversees the Global Centre's programming in New York and Geneva, and leads on developing innovative institutional mechanisms and capacities needed to prevent mass atrocities both at national and international level. Has worked with governments and regional organizations to enhance prevention through concrete implementation of R2P. Was instrumental in launching the Global Network of R2P Focal Points, the largest network of senior governmental officials of its kind. Currently, Ms. Pawnday is involved in leading Global Centre engagement with UN Peacekeeping and in identifying strategies, including training, on how to enhance protection capacities of peacekeepers on the ground. She has worked in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi with Catholic Relief Services, in New York with Trickle Up and in India with a few grass roots NGOs. She holds a M.A. from Fordham University in political economy and development, with a specialization in political economy of civil wars and a B.A. in Economics from St. Xavier's College, University of Mumbai.

Pawnday is on campus March 25-28, 2019. She will be holding a public talk on Wednesday, March 27th at 5pm in 148 Couper Administration Building. Consult our events page for more information.

Joseph Sebarenzi

Joseph Sebarenzi is the former Speaker of the Rwandan Parliament (1997-2000), a visiting professor at SIT Graduate Institute, a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and author of several book chapters and articles. He also authored his widely acclaimed memoir, God Sleeps in Rwanda: A Journey of Transformation (Atria Books, 2009), which has been published in the United States, the U.K., and Japan. He served as adviser to the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the United States Department of Justice, and currently works as a Research Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services at the Homeland Security.

Sebarenzi is on campus April 1-3, 2019. He will be holding a public presentation, "A Personal Journey to Forgiveness: Emerging from the Rwandan Genocide with a Positive Psychological Perspective" in the Admissions Center room 189 on Tuesday, April 2 at 6:30PM. Consult our events page for more information.

Clara Ramírez-Barat

Director of the Educational Policies Program at the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. Formerly Senior Research Associate at the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). Expert in the intersection between transitional justice and education. Developed a child-friendly version of the Kenyan Truth Commission's final report. Editor of Beyond Outreach: Transitional Justice, Culture and Society (New York: SSRC, 2014), and the co-editor of Transitional Justice and Education: Learning Peace (New York: SSRC, 2016) and Transitional Justice and Education: Engaging Young People in Peacebuilding and Reconciliation (Göttingen: V&R, 2018). Holds a Ph.D. from University Carlos III of Madrid and M.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University (2002).

Ramírez-Barat is on campus April 8-12, 2019. She will give a public presentation entitled, "Education as upstream or primary atrocity prevention" in the Admissions Center room 189 at 5:30PM on Thursday, April 11. Consult our events page for more information.

Marlon A. Weichert

Image: Marlon Weichert — Marlon Weichert

Federal prosecutor in Brazil for more than 20 years. Deputy Federal Ombudsman, Office of the Federal Attorney for Citizens' Rights, Federal Prosecution Service of Brazil. The first scholar and prosecutor to publicly argue that the Amnesty Law of 1979 was contrary to international law and that crimes against humanity were perpetrated during the dictatorship. Headed the program to search and identify the remains of victims of dictatorship-era crimes. Spearheaded the Brazil Never Again Digital Project. Served on the Amnesty Commission, granting reparations for victims of human rights violations during the dictatorship. Expert witness before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (2010, 2016, and 2017) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2008, 2014, and 2015). Author of numerous publications on human rights and transitional justice. Weichert is on campus April 8-12, 2019. Weichert will give a public presentation entitled, "Threating speeches before and after Bolsonaro's election: What is at risk?" in Admissions Center room 189 at 5:30PM on Monday, April 8. Consult our events page for more information.

Andrés Dávila-Ladrón de Guevara

Director of the Department of Political Science at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. Former Director of the Colombian Presidential Program for Integral Action against AntiPersonnel Mines, and Director of Justice and Security at the National Department of Planning. As a public official and consultant, has worked on issues and policies on justice, security, conflict, human rights, victims of the armed conflict, memory and corruption. As an expert on the relationship between civil society and the military, has authored The game of power: history, guns and votes (1998), Regular Army, Irregular Conflict (1990), The military reform in the negotiation agenda (1999, co-authored), Tell me who you are with: Linkages between civil society and the military in the 1990's Colombia (1998), etc. Dávila also co-edited "The Conflict in Context" (2016, 2017) with several regional analysis of the armed conflict and the Colombian Air Force's role. Holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Social Science Research with emphasis in Political Science from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences FLACSO, México (1997).

Dávila will be here April 15th through the 17th. He will give a public presentation entitled, "The Colombian conflict: Regional contexts to build memory" at 5:50pm in the University Downtown Center room 220A on Wednesday, April 17. Consult our events page for additional information.

Steven Luckert

Curator of the Permanent Exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, responsible for selection and incorporation of artifacts, researching and writing exhibition text, and handling all issues and inquiries pertaining to the exhibition. Prior to USHMM, Dr. Luckert taught European history at several campuses of the State University of New York and at George Mason University. He authored the companion volume to the exhibition, The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk, and co-authored State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda. He is a Binghamton University alum with a Ph.D. in modern European history.

Luckert is on campus April 29-May 2, 2019. He will give a public presentation with reception to follow at 5PM on Thursday, May 2 in the University Art Museum. Consult our events page for additional information.

Patricia Perez Valdes

Patricia Perez Valdes from the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile,
spent the fall semester in New Hampshire on the campus of Keene State College (KSC) as a KSG-AIPR Global Fellow.

She visited Binghamton University from November 12-16, and presented on “Memory
and Human Rights in Chile.”

Tibi Galis

Tibi Galis, executive director of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, I-GMAP’s first and principle NGO partner, visited I-GMAP from October 25- 30. His visit concluded with a public presentation on “Atrocity Prevention in the Age of Trump and Taylor Swift.”

Nicolas Habarugira

Rwandan human rights activist and community organizer Nicolas Habarugira visited I-GMAP from November 26 to December 1, traveling from his temporary home at Columbia University in New York City. He shared his experiences with intergenerational trauma and community healing in a post-genocide society. His presentation was titled “Dealing with Memories in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Downstream Prevention Through Community-Based Sociotherapy.”

Adam Lupel

Dr. Adam Lupel is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the International Peace Institute. He is responsible for developing IPI’s long-term research agenda and for overseeing management and coordination among IPI’s offices in New York, Vienna, and Manama in close collaboration with the President. Between 2014 and 2016 he served as the director of research and publications for the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, a project of IPI.

Dr. Lupel also conducts research on issues related to globalization, multilateralism, and the prevention of mass atrocities. He is the author of Globalization and Popular Sovereignty: Democracy’s Transnational Dilemma (2009) and the co-editor of Peace Operations and Organized Crime: Enemies or Allies? (2011) and Responding to Genocide: The Politics of International Action (2013).