I-GMAP is comprised of a core team of professional and academic staff.
Individual profiles are listed alphabetically by family name.
Max Pensky
Co-Director & Professor of Philosophy
Max Pensky
Max Pensky, PhD is a professor of philosophy and a co-director of the Institute for Genocide and
Mass Atrocity Prevention. His main areas of scholarly research include contemporary
political theory and political philosophy and the philosophy of international law,
with an emphasis on the normative foundations of current practices of transitional
justice, the post-conflict legal and political demands on recovering states, and the
relation between domestic and international criminal law. He also publishes regularly
on critical theory, including the works of Theodor Adorno and Jürgen Habermas, and
on issues in contemporary German political culture. He is the author of two books
and over 50 articles and chapters. He has held fellowships at Johann-Wolfgang Goethe
University Frankfurt, Cornell University, Oxford University and the University of
Ulster. Current research projects include a comprehensive study of the normative issues
surrounding the use of domestic amnesties for international crimes, and the concept
of impunity and the implications of an international legal-political norm against
impunity for international crimes.
Sarah SnyderSarah Snyder earned a PhD in the History of Ideas with a focus in Holocaust Studies through the University of Texas at Dallas and holds the position of Assistant Director
for Operations at the Institution for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton
University. In addition to her current role, she has been elected a member of the
Advisory Board for the International Association of Genocide Scholars where she serves
as a member of the planning committee for its 2023 international conference. In 2022,
Snyder’s recent article “The Dichotomy of Tourism at Auschwitz and Birkenau in the
Context of Memory” will be published in Visitor Engagement with Holocaust Memory Sites
in Poland. Prior to her current work, Snyder earned her Master’s from the University
of Buffalo in Cultural Anthropology. During that time, she conducted original research
in museology at Auschwitz-Birkenau where she received the award “If Not for Those
Ten.” She is also a 2019 Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellow in which she completed a three-week
intensive study tour in Poland. Snyder has shared her research both domestically and
internationally via academic conferences.
Amanda Ward
Amanda Ward is the Assistant Director of Academic Programs at the Institute for Genocide
and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University and a PhD Candidate from Ohio
University, specializing in Russian/Eastern European History. Her research interests
include the history of ethnic conflict in the Soviet and post-Soviet sphere, broadly
speaking, and her dissertation project examined Soviet war crimes trials in postwar
Ukraine. Amanda was named the Contemporary History Institute Fellow from 2012 to 2014
and the Baker Peace Fellow in 2019 to 2020. She holds a Master of Arts degree in History
from Ohio University, in addition to a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in History and
Political Science from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.
Co-Director & Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention
Kerry WhighamKerry Whigham, PhD is an assistant professor of genocide and mass atrocity prevention. He received a
Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies from New York University. In addition
to his duties as assistant professor, he will coordinate the Institute's online programs.
He has published articles in Genocide Studies and Prevention, The Journal of Latin
American Cultural Studies, Tourist Studies, Material Culture, and Museum and Society,
and has written a chapter for the edited volume Reconstructing Atrocity Prevention,
which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. Previously, he has been
a Postdoctoral Researcher at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human
Rights and a Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University's Center for the Study of Genocide
and Human Rights. In addition to his position at I-GMAP, he is the Academic Programs
Officer for Online Education at the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation
and the Communications Officer for the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
His research focuses on memory practices and civil society activism in post-atrocity
societies.
Nadia RubaiiNadia Rubaii, PhD was a professor of public administration and a co-director of the Institute for Genocide
and Mass Atrocity Prevention. Her research examines the internal and external factors
that contribute to the effectiveness of master’s degree programs intended for public
and nonprofit sector professionals, with a particular emphasis on alternative pedagogies
for the most effective contextual learning and comparisons of international and domestic
quality assurance systems. For many years her research has been targeted to helping
universities and public service organizations better serve diverse publics, be inter-culturally
effective and to promote social equity. Although Rubaii’s research, teaching and professional
service activities have been in all parts of the world, most of her recent work is
based in Latin America. She has held Fulbright appointments in Colombia and Venezuela,
and she is founding co-editor of GOBERNAR: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy
and Governance. She has held leadership positions in the Network of Schools of Public
Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), La Red Interamericana de Educación en
Administración Pública (INPAE) and the International Comparative Policy Analysis Forum
(ICPA-Forum).
I-GMAP is grateful for the generous support provided by the Charles E. Scheidt Family
Foundation.
