Michelle Kelso

Professor Kelso's interests span from collective memory and education, to aging and beauty, using qualitative methods to discover the personal constructions of identity. From 2008-09, Michelle was a Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she was working on her dissertation entitled that focused on the Romani experience in Romanian-run camps in occupied Soviet Union, and contemporary views in Romania of Roma as Holocaust victims. Michelle also holds a M.A. in Russian and East European studies, and a Master in Public Affairs from the University of Texas (2001). She speaks Romanian, French, and some Romani.

Additionally, Michelle has worked for several years in civil society. From 2005-2010, she was the director of a Romanian non-profit organization, the Association for Dialogue and Civic Education, which had projects on Holocaust education, tolerance promotion, as well as researching the fate of the Romanian Roma during WWII. In 2005, Michelle made a documentary film in 2005: "Hidden Sorrows: The Persecution of Romanian Gypsies During WWII" that has screened in seven countries, numerous film festivals, and aired on three national television channels.