Thursday, August 30, 2007

Genocide Studies Program in Argentina

I got this announcement from one of my IISGHR peers:

November 20-22, 2007
Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF)
Postgraduate Studies Site / Centro Cultural Borges
Viamonte 525, 3rd Floor Buenos Aires, Argentina

Though genocide has an ancient history, the role of annihilation in modern times has acquired a special character, transforming itself in a tool of social control used to discipline populations and to transform social relationships.

Genocide has been a regular feature of the classical, early-modern, and colonial eras, culminating in the modern period with the destruction of the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians, in World War One, and the multifaceted genocidal campaigns of the Nazis during World War Two. These and other genocides have found a strong echo in the repressive experiences of Latin America, as exemplified by the cases of Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and El Salvador, among others. However, genocidal social practices in the Latin American region have scarcely been dealt with in genocide
studies. Certainly, they have not been systematically connected to previous European experiences of genocide or to the experiences of war and postcolonial counterinsurgency in Indochina and Algeria, for example.

The First International Meeting “On Genocidal Social Practices”, held in Buenos Aires in November 2003, was the first opportunity for Argentine, Chilean, Mexican and other Latin American researchers to establish contact with the field of genocide studies. Some of the products of this gathering were published in English in a special issue of the Journal of Genocide Research, 8:2, June 2006 and in Spanish in the book Genocidio. La administración de la muerte en la modernidad (Genocide. Death administration in Modernity), published by UNTREF University in 2005.

The goal of this second meeting is to bring together researchers from different continents to explore the continuities and differences of genocidal social practices in different regions.

Academic Director of the Meeting
Daniel Feierstein (dfeierstein@untref.edu.ar)
Director Center of Genocide Studies (Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Argentina)

Organizing Academic Committee
Marcia Esparza (John Jay College, City University of New York)
Henry Huttenbach (The City College, City University of New York)
Adam Jones (Genocide Studies Program, Yale University)
Guillermo Levy (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
Hamurabi Noufouri (UNTREF / UBA)
Luis Roniger (Wake Forest University)
Juergen Zimmerer (University of Sheffield)


Topics for Roundtable discussions
1) The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and its Debates: The Struggle against Impunity. (Feierstein)
2) Colonialism and Genocidal Social Practices. (Huttenbach / Levy)
3) Genocidal Social Practices in the 20th Century. (Jones / Noufouri)
4) Preventing Genocide in the 21st Century: Major Risks and Early Warning Mechanisms. (Huttenbach)
5) Political Mass Violence and Genocide in Latin America. (Feierstein / Roniger)
6) Ways of “Symbolic Achievement” of Genocide: Genocidal Social Practices and Narration. (Feierstein / Levy)
7) Genocide and Structural/Institutional Violence. (Jones / Noufouri)
8) Processes of Resistance to Genocidal Social Practices. (Levy / Esparza)
9) Aftermath and Long-Term Repercussions of the Genocidal Social Practices. (Roniger/ Esparza)

Deadline for submission of abstracts: April 30, 2007
Deadline for submission of papers: October 15, 2007

•Registration fee for Argentine presenters and attendees: ARG $ 120.-
•Graduates, professors and students from Argentine National Universities: ARG $ 60.-
•Registration fee for foreign presenters and attendees: U$S 150.-
(The foreign registration fee includes the Meeting’s materials, Conference meals, a CD with the expositions and papers, and the attendance certificate.)

Information and registration
•UNTREF - Centro Cultural Borges Site: Viamonte 525 (almost San Martín), 3rd Floor - Pabellón de las Naciones, Buenos Aires City - Business hours: from 10 am to 7 pm. You can also consult the website www.untref.edu.ar

•For those who are interested in participating of the meeting, please fill out and e-mail the registration form to congresogenocidio@untref.edu.ar
•For those who reside outside Buenos Aires or abroad, fees can be paid at the opening of the meeting. However, attendance must be confirmed in advance by sending the registration form.

Confirmed international Lectures:
Marcia Esparza (John Jay College, City University of New York)
Henry Huttenbach (The City College, City University of New York)
Adam Jones (Genocide Studies Program, Yale University)
Luis Roniger (Wake Forest University)
Dominik Schaller (Bern University)
Jacques Semelin (CNRS, Paris, Director Encyclopedia of Mass Violence)
Juergen Zimmerer (University of Sheffield)
Gianni Tognoni (Tribunal Permanente de los Pueblos)

Organizer:
Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero

Co-Sponsors:
INOGS (International Network of Genocide Scholars)
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales - Universidad de Buenos Aires
Tribunal Permanente de los Pueblos

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Center's Library

The Center's library has been newly cataloged (courtesy of LibraryThing) and is awaiting your browsing. The library has expanded thanks to the generous donations from Professor John K. Roth and Bonnie Snortum. Everything (including videos and DVDs) is available to be checked out. Search for books on the right-hand side of the blog or visit it online here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/CMCHolocaustCenter

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

News flash: ADL statement

ADL Statement on the Armenian Genocide

New York, NY, August 21, 2007 … Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today issued the following statement:

In light of the heated controversy that has surrounded the Turkish-Armenian issue in recent weeks, and because of our concern for the unity of the Jewish community at a time of increased threats against the Jewish people, ADL has decided to revisit the tragedy that befell the Armenians.

We have never negated but have always described the painful events of 1915-1918 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as massacres and atrocities. On reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau, Sr. that the consequences of those actions were indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they would have called it genocide.

I have consulted with my friend and mentor Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and other respected historians who acknowledge this consensus. I hope that Turkey will understand that it is Turkey's friends who urge that nation to confront its past and work to reconcile with Armenians over this dark chapter in history.

Having said that, we continue to firmly believe that a Congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and may put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel and the United States.


The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

The Armenian Genocide and the ADL

Armenian genocide? ADL debate hitting home


By Amanda McGregor , Staff writer

Salem News


August 21, 2007

Salem, Massachusetts

Apo Torosyan said his documentaries will clear up any doubt in the Anti-Defamation League's dispute over recognizing the Armenian genocide.



Torosyan lost most of his family in the killings and has spent years chronicling survivors' stories.



"People are fighting for the truth," said Torosyan, an Armenian from Turkey has lived in Peabody since the 1960s. "I have witnesses telling with their own mouths what happened to them and their ancestors - people shot, boys tied up together on boats and pushed into the water to drown."



Last week, the Anti-Defamation League's national leadership fired its New England director, Andrew Tarsy, because he wanted the organization to recognize the Armenian genocide. His firing prompted two regional ADL board members to resign in protest.



The controversy is resonating on the North Shore with the families of survivors and is prompting some local communities to re-evaluate their participation in the ADL's No Place for Hate Program. The organization is primarily known for combating anti-Semitism.



"They wouldn't deny it, but they wouldn't affirm it, either," said Holocaust survivor Sonia Weitz of Peabody, who founded the Holocaust Center Boston North. "I very much agree with what Andrew Tarsy did, because it's unacceptable to me - the denial of genocide that is accepted by just about any historian and most countries."



The controversy has weighed on Mary Torigian Foley of Peabody, whose four grandparents and many other relatives were killed in Turkey between 1915 and 1918.



"People were slaughtered left and right. To say it's not genocide is very, very painful," said Foley, whose brother, the late Peabody Mayor Peter Torigian, founded the city's annual Armenian genocide recognition ceremony more than 20 years ago. "My hat's off to (Andrew) Tarsy for speaking up."



Many North Shore cities and towns have signed onto the ADL's No Place for Hate designation, in which communities host regular events in conjunction with the ADL to promote human rights and religious and racial tolerance. Salem joined earlier this year, and in light of the controversy, the city will review its membership at its next meeting.



"I'm actually very surprised by the ADL's stance on this," said Salem City Councilor Lucy Corchado, who advocated joining No Place for Hate. "We need to promote being tolerant and respectful to others, and that's what (the ADL's) mission was, so I thought."



'Difference in policy'



James Rudolph of Swampscott is the ADL's New England regional board chairman, and he said he hopes that local No Place for Hate communities won't jump ship amid his office's brush with the national ADL.



"Our executive (New England) committee has voted that the ADL should acknowledge the Armenian genocide," Rudolph said. "Right now, we're in what I would call uncharted waters with respect to the relationship between the national and regional board, where we have this difference in policy."



Even North Shore residents angered by the national position don't want it to cast a shadow over the ADL's work in other arenas.



"The ADL has done some wonderful, wonderful things on human rights and against racism and bigotry," Weitz said, "and I hope the communities can see that one thing really has nothing to do with the other."



In response to the dispute, the ADL's national office issued a letter this week that said its policy has been distorted.



"The controversy occurred because of the distortion of our position on a complex issue," Chairman Glen Lewy wrote in a letter that the ADL is running in newspapers this week and posted on its Web site, www.adl.org.



The letter does not use the word genocide but goes on to read, "ADL has acknowledged and never denied the massacres of hundreds of thousands of Armenians - and by some accounts more than 1 million - at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1918.



"We believe that the Turkish government must do more than it has to confront its history and to seek reconciliation with the Armenian people."



Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey, however, denies that constituted genocide, saying the death toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.



Genocide usually refers to a systematic effort to destroy an entire national or ethnic population.



Susan Fletcher leads the Danvers Committee on Diversity, which is mulling whether Danvers will rejoin the No Place for Hate program after a several-year hiatus. She said Lewy's letter raised valid points.



"It's an issue that really isn't black and white," said Fletcher, who said the Diversity Committee will meet Thursday and likely discuss the ADL controversy. "There are valid points on both sides, and it's also important to consider the many wonderful ADL programs."



What's behind it?



The debate was sparked in Watertown, home to 8,000 Armenian Americans, where the town rejected the No Place for Hate designation.



The ADL's recent letter called Turkey "a key strategic ally and friend of the United States and a staunch friend of Israel . ... In the struggle between Islamic extremists and moderate Islam, Turkey is the most critical country in the world."



Torosyan believes money and power fuel the denial. He is also a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.



"This was not a civil war, but the Turkish government covers it. They know if they accept it, it will be a financial burden," he said, referring to the possibility of reparations. "But the Armenian people don't necessarily want that. They want an apology and recognition."



Foley, who lost so many of her family members, said politics should not prevail.



"They think a stand on genocide will hurt Israel, but I don't think so," Foley said, "because the ADL is not the government of the United States. It really bothers me that it's so difficult to call this a genocide; that's what it is."



Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.



Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.

Monday, August 13, 2007

What's in a Name?

The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College is a pretty lengthy title. Generally, as most of you know, it is referred to as, simply, "The Holocaust Center." With both its founding director and current director as scholars of the Holocaust and with a library that is around 85% Holocaust-centric, it seems reasonable that the Holocaust focus of the Center's mission would take "center" stage. But perhaps this should be readdressed.

I spent the past two weeks at the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies in Toronto, Canada, learning about genocide from a comparative and interdisciplinary standpoint with twenty-five other students from around the world. In the sixty-five hours of classroom time, we looked into the Armenian Genocide, the Nazi Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and Darfur. We spent time talking genocide and philosophy, international intervention, and preventing genocide. The professors brought in were all top of their field and the students with whom I studied were Ph.D. candidates, museum archivists, play directors, and NGO volunteers. As the youngest and one of two undergraduate students attending, I found myself slightly intimidated but more inspired by my peers in the program.

The main thing I took away from this program, however, was the realization of how important comparing genocides is for future genocide prevention. The trick, of course, is learning to do that while honoring the uniqueness of each victim groups' experience. We study genocide to honor these victims and to understand human experience, but also to understand human capability and hopefully learn to prevent the full capability of destruction from emerging in the form of genocide.

There's a reason our Center has such a long title. Inspired by the horrors of the Holocaust, the founders of this Center sought to create an institution that would address them while also opening up scholarship into other genocides and human rights violations. Acronyms can be complicated and over-used, but as all three elements of this Center's name are important to its mission, perhaps we should consider CSHGHR when referring to it, so as not to belittle pieces of the mission. Or, taking human rights in the positive sense, maybe we should, as Prof. Faggen suggests, emphasize the Human Rights aspect. Increasing human rights is, after all, the goal. Isn't it?

Click here to learn about the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (or IIGHRS)