Dr. Chris E. Toffolo, founding member
What is most interesting or unique about your research?
Doing the live interviewing of those who suffered and survived the 1972 genocide in Burundi ... speaking with people first hand.
What do you value most about being part of GHRAD?
Sharing people's truths.
What originally drew you to your field of study?
When I was in my 20s I was traveling in the eastern part of Nigeria (which had been devastated by the Biafran war in the 1960s in which starvation was used as a tactic - the signs of that war (discarded tanks etc.) were still visible. This same region suffers now from the complete destruction of the land and water due to Shell Oil company's oil extraction processes: it has left the land and water dead, and that was causing the children to be suffering from kwashiorkor, a severe form of malnutrition caused by a lack of protein. I didn't know what I was seeing or why but it deeply bothered me. At the first GHRAD conference Dr. Polk presented a paper on the Biafran war being an instance of genocide, and those memories came flooding back - and I realized I needed to do something so I ask Jeanine if I could join GHRAD.