A Decade Of Studying History's Dark Side At Salem State University

SALEM, MA — A decade of examining the root causes of the dark side of human history is being celebrated at Salem State University.

The school's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has provided academic, professional and public programs designed to educate and empower students, teachers and the community to combat racism, prejudice, ethnic hatred and the abuse of authority since its inception in 2014.

"When we started the CHGS 10 years ago, we could not have anticipated how our mission and programs would become so urgent both globally and here in our own democracy," CHGS Director and history professor Christopher Mauriello said.

A new retrospective publication has been produced to commemorate this milestone, featuring photographs from the last decade and information about the center's main programs, including the Rwanda study and travel program to the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village and the Sonia Schreiber Weitz Lecture Series.

The retrospective includes the center's work with teachers on how to bring these topics into their classrooms and highlights its archival collections at the Frederick E. Berry Library at Salem State.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)