Rutgers University, Newark, Programs Examine Prevention and Remembrance of War, Massacre, and Genocide

Upcoming public programs at Rutgers University, Newark, will examine chilling modern examples of humanity at its worst as well as attempts to avoid their forgetting and re-occurrence.  All programs are free and sponsored by the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers University, Newark ( http://cghr.newark.rutgers.edu/).

Next month the Center will co-sponsor a two-day international conference on “Forgotten Genocides: Silence, Memory, Denial,” http://cghr.newark.rutgers.edu/conference_home.html ,  on March 28-29, held in partnership with the Center for Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation at Bergen Community College, Paramus. The March 28 evening session will be at Bergen Community College, while the main session on March 29 is at Rutgers University, Newark.  The first day of the conference will discuss “Why the Armenian Genocide Was Forgotten: Turkish Conceptions of National Security and History.”  The second day at Rutgers will include talks on the Holocaust, the Ottoman genocide of Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontic Greeks, the Circassian genocide, and the Ukrainian genocide, all of which are expect to attract audiences fr

om related Northern New Jersey and New York regional communities. A full schedule is at the end of this release.

The conference will be followed in April by two individual programs at Rutgers, Newark.  An April 12 lecture will look at “Genocide Prevention in the Sudan,” from 4- 5 p.m., in the Dana Room, John Cotton Dana Library, 185 University Ave., Newark. The speaker is Francis Deng, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. The mission of his office, according to the UN, is to “raise awareness of the causes and dynamics of genocide, to alert relevant actors where there is a risk of genocide and to advocate and mobilize for appropriate action.

On April 13, “Human Rights in Chechnya” will be the topic of The Honorable Lord

Frank Judd of Portsea, a member of Britain’s House of Lords and former Rapporteur for Chechnya to the Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), an intergovernmental organization that promotes human rights.  The talk will be held from 2:30 - 3:50 p.m. in the David Hosford Seminar Room, 315 Hill Hall, at 360 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark. The Rutgers University, Newark, campus is handicapped-accessible.

 Here is the schedule for “Forgotten Genocides: Silence, Memory, Denial.”

 

FORGOTTEN GENOCIDES: SILENCE, MEMORY, DENIAL

MONDAY, MARCH 28, BERGEN COMMUNITY COLLEGE, RECITAL ROOM,

WEST HALL, 400 PARAMUS RD., PARAMUS

7:15 p.m., Why the Armenian Genocide Was Forgotten: Turkish Conceptions of National Security and History: Taner Akcam, Clarke University, Iowa

 

 

TUESDAY, MARCH 29, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, BOVE AUDITORIUM,

ENGELHARD HALL, 190 UNIVERSITY AVE., NEWARK

 8:35 a.m., Panel I: Forgettings and Rememberings

Chair: Erica Lehrer, Concordia University, Canada

·         Hidden Genocides: Power, Knowledge, Memory: Doug Irvin and Alex Hinton, Rutgers University; Tom LaPointe, Bergen Community College

 ·         Thinking Beyond the Binary Model: National Security Doctrine in Latin America as a way of Rethinking Genocide as a Social Practice:  Daniel Daniel Feierstein, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (TREF), Argentina

10 a.m., Panel II:  Identity and Difference

Chair: Aldo Civico, Rutgers University

·         Cambodian-Canadian Inspirational Tales of Survival: Treading the Margins of Remembering and Forgetting Genocide Suffering:  Carol Kidron, University of Haifa, Israel

·         What the Law Does Not Recall: Repair, ‘Historical Reality,’ and the Legal Order in the Czech Republic: Krista Hegburg, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

 

  11:30 a.m., Session III: Power, Resistance, and Indigenous Peoples

Chair: Sean Mitchell, Rutgers University

 ·         Indian Residential Schools in Canada: The Issue of Genocide and Public Policy:

Frank Chalk, Concordia University, Canada

 ·         Nits Make Lice: Genocide and the Destruction of Indigenous Peoples of the United States: Chris Mato Nunpa, Southwest Minnesota State University

 ·         Remembering Benevolence, Forgetting Genocide: The Stolen Generations in Australia: Donna-Lee Frieze, Deakin University, Australia

 

 2:30 p.m., Panel IV: Power, Knowledge and Memory

Chair: Isaias Rojas-Perez, Rutgers University

 ·         Has the Holocaust Helped Us Remember or Forget Genocides? Dirk Moses, European University Institute, Italy

          Constructing ‘The Armenian Genocide’: How Genocide Scholars Unremember the Assryian and Greek Massacres and Deportations of 1914-1923: Hannibal Travis, Florida International University

 

 4  p.m., Panel V: Memory, Silence, and Denial

Chair: R. Brian Ferguson, Rutgers University

 ·         The Great Lakes Genocides: Forgotten Histories, Forgotten Precedents: Adam Jones, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Canada

·         Forgetting Genocide Before It Happens: Genocidal Categories and German Political Culture Before World War I:  Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, University of Pennsylvania

 

 5:15 p.m., Panel VI, Museum Exhibition

Chair: Nela Navarro, Rutgers University

From a “Crime without a Name” to “Genocide”: The Simele Massacre of Assyrians, Iraq, August 1933: Igor Kotler, Museum of Human Rights, Freedom, and Tolerance

 

 7 p.m., Panel VII: Hidden Genocides

Chair: Alex Hinton, Rutgers University

·         Circassia: A Small Nation Lost to the Great Game: Walter Richmond, Occidental College, California  

·         The Ukrainian Genocide: Why Marxist Genocide Scholars and Journalists Ignore and then Deny Genocides Committed by Marxist-Leninist Regimes: Greg Stanton, George Mason University, Virginia

  

GETTING TO RUTGERS

BY MASS TRANSIT: Rutgers-Newark can be reached by New Jersey Transit buses and trains, the PATH train and Amtrak from New York City, and by the Newark Light Rail, Washington Street Station or Broad Street Station. 

 

BY CAR: Rutgers-Newark can be reached by the Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike, Routes 95, 21, 78, and 280, and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. Metered parking is available on University Avenue. Other parking: Rutgers-Newark’s parking garage (200 University Ave.) or the Bradley Hall Lot.  Printable maps and driving directions at: www.newark.rutgers.edu/maps/index.php