About Me

My name is Chad Gibbs and I am an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies at the College of Charleston. I received my PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2021, my MA in history from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2016, and my BA in history at the University of Wyoming (PBK, scl) in 2013. 

My teaching and research interests focus in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, modern European Jewish history, and modern Germany.  My current work applies geographic and social network analysis methodologies to extensive testimonial sources to reconstruct prisoner resistance inside the extermination camp Treblinka II. 

I am devoted to oral history research and practice, serving as an interviewer for the USC Shoah Foundation’s work with Holocaust survivors and as an Affiliated Researcher with the USC-Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research. My research and teaching have been supported by fellowships at Yad Vashem, the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the USC-Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, the Yale University Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, and the George L. Mosse Program in History, among others.

In Spring 2025, I taught JWST 252/HIST 250: “Race and the Second World War” and HIST 591: “Creating Public Histories of the Holocaust.” During the Fall 2025 term, I will teach my core JWST 230/HIST 241: “The Holocaust” course and a new offering, HONS 391 “Women and the Holocaust,” in our Honors College. In the summer 2025 Maymester term, I will help lead our JWST 300 “European Jewish Life and the Holocaust” study abroad program in Germany, Poland, and Lithuania.

I served in the U.S. Army before my academic career, attaining the rank of Sergeant/E-5.  In 2006, I was wounded in Iraq and honorably medically retired from the service in 2009.