2021-2022 Academic Catalog

Apr 19, 2024

2021-2022 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIST 230 - 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. Should we consider the environmental catastrophes and pandemic as new versions of genocide? We will start the course with a debate around the need for a paradigm shift in genocide research. We will also compare different genocides around different examples and try to understand the similarities and differences between them. The central issues we will discuss include the following: the question of Great Power policies and genocides; 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. We will discuss each of these topics from a comparative perspective. For example, we will compare the Ottoman-Armenian case with Rwanda and discuss Germany and France’s role, respectively.

Regarding concentration camps, we will look at Spain-Cuba, British-Boer, and German South-West experiences and compare them with the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust. We will compare the perpetrators of different genocides. Regarding denialist policies, we will take a look at the views of some leading thinkers such as Noam Chomsky in the Left and their denialism around genocide in the Serbian and Rwandan cases.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically