I-GMAP is comprised of a core team of professional and academic staff.
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 J眉rgen 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.
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. 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.
Founding Co-Director & Professor of Public Administration
Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm
PhD, Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention
Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm
Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm, PhD is a professor of genocide and mass atrocity prevention. He is the author of three
books and over 40 articles and book chapters on transitional justice (TJ), human rights,
and peacebuilding. Specifically, he is interested in evaluating the impact of justice
and peacebuilding policy interventions, the political economy of TJ, and the role
of diasporas in TJ processes. His newest book (with Elin Skaar & Jemima Garc铆a-Godos)
is Exploring Truth Commission Recommendations in a Comparative Perspective: Beyond Words (Intersentia Uitgevers NV, 2022). Current research projects examine truth commission
engagement with marginalized groups, truth commission successor bodies, and donor
funding for transitional justice. Prior to joining I-GMAP, he held positions at the
University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Florida State University, DePaul University鈥檚
International Human Rights Law Institute, and the University of Nevada - Las Vegas.
He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public
Service and the University of Seoul, as well as a visiting scholar at the Christian
Michelson Institute (Norway). He is a 2022-2023 Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellow
in Atrocity Prevention. He received his doctorate in Political Science at the University
of Colorado.
Nicole Barren
Assistant Director
Nicole Barren
Nicole Barren is Assistant Director at I-GMAP. Nicole joined the I-GMAP team in May 2024 after
over a decade working in the nonprofit sector with an emphasis on women鈥檚 and children鈥檚
health and education. This included seven years as executive director of a nonprofit
providing shelter, counseling, and advocacy services to domestic violence survivors.
Nicole also worked in southeastern Africa for over four years, as field manager at
a Swiss nonprofit organization that worked to improve women鈥檚 and children鈥檚 education
and healthcare in rural Malawi, and as a rural education development specialist with
the Peace Corps in remote northern Zambia. Nicole has a MS in Child and Family Health
in the Global Community from Syracuse University and a BA in Anthropology from Hartwick
College.
