Written by Dr. Nicholas Akgulian
The Wisconsin Council on Social Studies (WCSS) Annual Conference was held March 15-17, 2024 in Madison. The Wisconsin Armenian National Committee and the entire Wisconsin Armenian community each had booths at the conference and provided numerous resources related to the Wisconsin Social Studies Conference. We informed educators and attendees about the Armenian Genocide, including methods available to incorporate this history into the classroom.
In 2021, Wisconsin passed Act 30, which requires that “the Holocaust and other genocides” be taught at least once at both the middle school and high school levels. As social studies teachers are required to implement Law No. 30, the participation of the Armenian community in the WCSS conference aims to provide these educators with the tools to effectively teach about the Armenian case. It was. In addition to the booth, there was a presentation about the history of Armenians in Wisconsin by community members Tareen Keledian and Armen Hadjinian. Dr. George Dalbo, a Wisconsin educator and Genocide Education Project Fellow, was instrumental in organizing the presentation and was present to lend his expertise to the discussion that followed. It included a short but powerful film about the September 2023 exodus from Artsakh.
To further equip Wisconsin educators to incorporate the Armenian Genocide and recent events in Artsakh into their classrooms in support of Act 30, on April 27, 2024 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) A one-day workshop will be held. . This event is sponsored by the UWM Institute of World Affairs in partnership with the Wisconsin Armenian Community and co-sponsored by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). Winslow Martin, an acclaimed Boston-area photographer who has returned to Armenia regularly for the past 25 years, profiles Artsakh refugees during his time there last September. He will be one of several featured presenters.There is a link to the workshop here.
In July, Wisconsin's Armenian community will once again participate in the Milwaukee-based Holocaust Education Resource Center's annual virtual conference on the Holocaust and genocide. Distinguished Professor Dr. Khatchig Mouradian (Columbia University, Library of Congress) will also be participating.
In the fall, Dr. Mouradian will lead a university-level online course on comparative genocide offered through UWM in collaboration with NAASR. A flyer for this much-awaited course is included here. This credit course is open to all eligible high school students, students with UWM or other degrees, and interested non-degree members of the public. For more information, please contact her Rachel Baum at UWM.
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