Wolf Gruner, PhD, Founding Director
Originally from Germany, Wolf Gruner is a specialist for the research of the Holocaust and Central European Jewish history, topics on which he published ten books and around 70 articles and book chapters by now. Most recently, he published a prizewinning book on the Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. He just finished an exciting decade-long research project on forgotten acts of individual defiance and protest of German and Austrian Jews in Nazi Germany. The soon to be published book will fundamentally revise our understanding of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Additional areas of research include the comparative history of mass violence and its resistance on a global scale, as well as racial and state discrimination against Indigenous and other minority populations, especially in Latin America. Since 2008, he is the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History at the University of Southern California. In 2014, Professor Gruner became the founding director of the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research (previously the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research). He is a member of the Academic Committee of the Unites States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, and co-founder of the National Consortium of Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies.
More information about Professor Gruner
Contact: gruner@usc.edu
Martha Stroud, PhD, Associate Director
Martha Stroud manages the day-to-day operations of the Center for Advanced Genocide Research, which advances innovative interdisciplinary research on the Holocaust and other genocides and promotes use of the Visual History Archive and related unique resources and collections in research and teaching. She joined the Center in 2015 after earning her PhD in Medical Anthropology at UC Berkeley. An anthropologist with special interests in the anthropology of genocide, psychological anthropology, and Indonesia, Martha’s research focuses on the Indonesian mass killings and detentions of 1965-1966, their aftermath, and the ways in which the events of 1965-1966 continue to emerge in daily life in Indonesia today, over 50 years after the killings first began.
Contact: mstroud@usc.edu
Mya Worrell, Program Assistant
Mya Worrell (they/them) supports the Center’s programming, research, and outreach. They’ve been with USC since 2016, earning a BA in Gender & Sexuality Studies and American Studies & Ethnicity in 2020. They joined the Center for Advanced Genocide Research in 2021. While an undergraduate student, they interned at USC Asian Pacific American Student Services and Kaya Press, assisting with events and developing programming. Currently, they serve as Program Manager for Tuesday Night Project, an Asian American grassroots organization focused on bridging communities with its art+community ethos. When not working, you’ll probably find them playing tabletop roleplaying games, researching zines and paper-craft, or enjoying tea.
Contact: mworrell@usc.edu