Kristin Hass
Faculty Coordinator
Professor of American Culture Kristin Hass has been with the Collaboratory since its inception. She is the author of Carried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1998), Sacrificing Soldiers on the National Mall (2013), and Blunt Instruments: Recognizing Racist Cultural Infrastructure in Memorials, Museums, and Patriotic Practices (2023); and the editor of Being Human During COVID (2021). Fields of study include: visual culture, material culture, museum studies, memory, 20th-century cultural history.
Sheri Sytsema-Geiger
Project Manager
In addition to working as a strategic partner with the Collaboratory’s Faculty Coordinator, as Project Manager Sheri is responsible for supporting the research teams with budgetary and financial issues, as well as providing reports and financial guidance related to Collaboratory funding policies. In addition, she facilitates the grant application process, hiring of undergraduate and graduate student research assistants, and oversees the facilities and technologies needs of the Collaboratory and its teams.
Emily Schmitt
Collaboratory Coordinator
Emily graduated from the University of Michigan in 2021 and joined the Collaboratory in fall 2023 after a period of working in public policy. Emily handles administrative and logistical tasks such as maintaining the Collaboratory space in the Hatcher Graduate Library, planning Collaboratory events, assembling team budget reports, and managing inquiries from team members – including hiring students and completing payments and purchases. She also maintains the Collaboratory website and curates our bi-weekly newsletter.