The 20th Century: The Age of Genocide

3 units

This course will explore some of the darkest and most difficult to understand topics in recent human history: the Holocaust and other genocide events of the 20th century. From World War II to Rwanda, humans in the 20th century have demonstrated a terrifying capacity to inflict violence upon specific groups of people. The global occurrence of these events indicates that they are limited to no single region, religion, political system, or ideology. This course will explore the complex historical factors that produced genocides. Particular cases examined will vary from year to year, but will include, for example, Armenia, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia, and the Nazi genocide of the Jews, Sinti, and Roma. Themes addressed may include gender and genocide, genocide prevention and intervention, justice and genocide, and memory and memorialization. We will also examine the stories of those who fought repressive regimes and spoke out against genocidal leaders, seeking to understand how confronting these issues in the past may help us to confront human cruelty in the present.