Understanding Atrocities: Remembering, Representing and Teaching Genocide

We use ‘genocide’ and ‘atrocity’– words that overlap and mix – as we reach for an understanding of the full horror of one people’s attempts to eliminate another. Atrocity is an aspect of genocide, and is at the crux of most discussions on the topic, but from what is this sense of atrocity derived? We universally regard genocide as an atrocity, yet why does it persist? The Understanding Atrocities Conference aims to explore, among other things, the relationship between ‘atrocity’ and ‘genocide,’ and how they are interwoven and understood. By approaching the topic of genocidal atrocity within the themes of remembering, representing, and teaching, we hope to engender a discussion across, between, and among the disciplines.

The conference will include keynote addresses by James Waller, the Cohen Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Keene State College, and author of Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (2002); Andrea Smith, author of Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (2005); and Christopher Powell, author of Barbaric Civilization: A Critical Sociology of Genocide (2011). The conference will also include a panel discussion on political and academic encounters with genocide, with Allan Rock, the President of the University of Ottawa and former Canadian Justice Minister, and Lloyd Axworthy, the President of the University of Winnipeg and former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The conference will consist of plenary addresses, roundtables, film presentations, and multiple panels and workshops relating to recent issues and advances in scholarship and teaching on key aspects of genocide studies, as well as pointing the way toward further research and study.

Conveners: Tristan Smyth and Scott Murray


Contact:

Scott W. Murray / Tristan Smyth
Department of Humanities
Mount Royal University
4825 Mount Royal Gate SW
Calgary, AB T3E 6K6
Canada
Phone: +1 403 440-6098
Fax:   +1 403 440-6659
Email: [email protected]
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