2020-2021 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2020-2021 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIST 330 - The Topics in Genocide in Comparative Perspective


In this course, we will review a wide range of topics that have crystallized over decades of genocide research. We will compare different topics in different examples of genocide and try to understand the similarities and differences between them. The central issues we will discuss include the following: the question of continuity and breaks in the genocidal process; the question of Great Power policies and the problem of prevention; gender and genocide, especially policies towards women and children during different genocides; resistance to genocide; the experience of concentration camps; the legal process of economic plunder and confiscation of properties during genocides; and, lastly, we will discuss the question of denialism.

Each of these topics will be discussed through a comparative perspective, where we will examine how these issues have played out during different episodes of genocides around the world and what lessons we can learn through each of these experiences.  For example, we will compare the Armenian case with Rwanda and discuss the policy of Western Powers in each, specifically of Germany during the Armenian Genocide and France during the Rwandan Genocide. With regards to concentration camps, we will look at Spain-Cuba, British-Boer, and German South-West experiences and compare it with the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust. When it comes to resistance to genocide, our central question will be: what is the role of certain key agents within victim groups in the genocidal process and how can we adequately address their role without regarding them as passive receivers of the perpetrators’ policies? Finally, as a last example, with regards to denialist policies, we will take a look at the views of certain key thinkers in the Left and their denialism around genocide, specifically Noam Chomsky and his viewpoints in the Serbian and Rwandan cases.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically