History of Genocide

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course is a seminar exploration of the modern history of human rights, humanitarianism, and war crimes, conducted through the examination of several cases of mass violence, some of which have come to be labeled “genocide.” The class will first consider genocide in world history, then the rise of “human rights” and humanitarian activism since the 19th-century founding of the Red Cross. The class will then interrogate the evolution of the terms “war crimes” and “genocide,” their technical meaning in international case law, and report the abuse of the term “genocide” to further state and group interests. Following such theoretical orientation, students present the literature covering several outbreaks of systemic violence. During this course we explore how engaged activists, diplomats, and historians think about, analyze, and interpret such violence; discuss the nature of our historical knowledge; and evaluate different theories that ground our views of such violence.