Concepts in Holocaust, Genocide, and Peace Studies. (HGPS 201 â 3 credits). Gender, Race, and Identity Program. University of Nevada Reno. Semester: ...
Concepts in Holocaust, Genocide, and Peace Studies (HGPS 201 – 3 credits)
Gender, Race, and Identity Program University of Nevada Reno Semester: Spring 2018 Instructor: Dr. Eliot Assoudeh “Genocide is one of the most difficult foreign policy challenges for the last hundred years and we’ve almost uniformly failed to confront it.” Michael Gerson – Genocide Prevention Task Force Member Speechwriter and Policy Advisor to Former President George W. Bush
“As I was looking at them at shaking their hands, I noticed some blood spots … and all of a sudden they disappeared from being a human. All of a sudden something happened that turned them into non-human things. And I was not talking with humans. I literary was talking with evil.” Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire – Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR)
“The approach I adopted was to demystify genocide by seeing it as an extreme form of identity crisis-related conflicts and these identity conflicts dichotomize people in a manner that is both discriminating and causing a great deal of harm to the group that is denigrated as not in-group.” Francis Deng – Former United Nations Special Adviser of the SecretaryGeneral on the Prevention of Genocide
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Course Description The purpose of this course is to fulfill one of the main courses for the interdisciplinary minor in the Holocaust, Genocide, and Peace Studies (HGPS). This course explores the emergence and evolution of Nazi racial policies in Germany, 1933–1943 and broadens students’ understandings of the Holocaust by comparing it to other instances of genocides such as genocides of indigenous peoples, the Ottoman destruction of Christian minorities and genocides in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Rwanda. The main theme of the course is: Genocide between Sacred and Profane. We look at both secular and religious roots of genocides. The class analyses the origins of prejudice, hatred, and dehumanization policies of states, nonstate actors, and organized religions. Course Objectives
1. Students will be familiar with the theoretical and analytical tools for understanding major social conflicts, mass destructions, and genocides. 2. Students will have an understanding of conflict resolutions and peaceful social relationships. 3. Students will learn about archival research methods and practices. 4. Students will learn to use library resources for their research. 5. Students will learn to conduct group projects. 6. Students will learn how to write a research paper
Required Texts
Bergen, Doris L. War and genocide: A concise history of the Holocaust. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. Hochstadt, Steve. Sources of the Holocaust, Palgrave Macmillan (2004). Naimark, Norman. Genocide: A World History. Oxford University Press. 2016. Recommended Texts
Jacobs, S. L. ed. Confronting Genocide: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Lexington Books. 2009. Jones, Adam. Genocide: A comprehensive introduction. Routledge, 2010. Gregory, Paul. Women of the Gulag: Portraits of Five Remarkable Lives. Hoover Institution Press, 2013. Waller, James E. Becoming evil: How ordinary people commit genocide and mass killing. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Project: The assignment is comprised of three parts: a response paper to a documentary, a research paper (on a pre-approved topic and case of genocide), and a group poster
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Lecture Schedule for Spring 2018
Theme One
Genocide: A Contested Concept Week 1: January 22 – 26 Introduction to the Course Readings: Naimark, Introduction (pp. 1-6) Week 2: January 29 – February 2 Readings: Jones, Chapter 1 (pp. 3-30) – ARES Moshman, David. "Conceptual constraints on thinking about genocide." Journal of Genocide Research 3, no. 3 (2001): 431-450. Straus, Scott. "Contested meanings and conflicting imperatives: A conceptual analysis of genocide." Journal of Genocide Research 3, no. 3 (2001): 349-375.
Theme Two
Genocide and Its Variations Week 3: February 5 – 9 The Ancient World & Warrior Genocides Readings: Naimark, Chapter 1 & 2 (pp. 7-33) Week 4: February 12 – 16 The Spanish Conquest and Settler Genocides Readings: Naimark, Chapter 3 & 4 (pp. 34-64)
Readings: Naimark, Chapter 5 (pp. 65-85) Bergen, Chapter 1 (pp. 1-28)
Week 5: February 19 – 23 Modern Genocides
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Week 6: February 26 – March 2 The Holocaust Discussion: Rise of Nazism Analyzing: Sophie Scholl the Final Days Week 7: March 5 – 9 The Holocaust Readings: Bergen, Chapters 2-5 (29-134) Week 8: March 12 – 16 Communist & Anti-Communist Genocides Readings: Naimark, Chapter 6 & 7 (pp. 86-122) Naimark, Norman. "Totalitarian states and the history of genocide." telos 2006, no. 136 (2006): 10-25.
Midterm – Wednesday March 14 Week 9: 19 – 23 Spring Break Week 10: March 26 – 30 Post-Cold War Genocides Readings: Naimark, Chapter 8 (pp. 123-141) Feldman, Matthew. "The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia: genocide between political religion and religious politics." Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team (HEART)(electronic) (2008).
Theme Three
Becoming Evil Week 11: April 2 – 6 How Do Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing?
Readings: Waller, Chapter 5 & 6 (pp. 137-195) Bergen, Bernard J. The banality of evil: Hannah Arendt and 'the final solution'. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. (Chapter 1 – The Problem of “the Final Solution”) Hochstadt, Steve. Part III (the Creation of Monsters in Germany: Jews and Others) 4
Week 12: April 9 – 13 Readings: Waller, Chapter 7 & 8 (pp. 196-278) Hochstadt, Steve. Part IV (the Nazi Attack on Jews and Other Undesirables in the Third Reich, 1933–1938) Hochstadt, Steve. Part V (the Physical Assault on Jews in Germany, 1938–1939) Week 13: April 16 – 20 Readings: Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah, and Maurice Wohlgelernter. "Hitler’s willing executioners." Society 34, no. 2 (1997): 32-37. Hochstadt, Steve. Part VI (the Perfection of Genocide as National Policy, 1939–1943) Kallis, Aristotle. Genocide and fascism: the Eliminationist Drive in Fascist Europe. Routledge, 2008. Chapters 1 & 4.
Theme Four
Religious Roots of Genocides Week 14: April 23 – 27 Readings: Bergen, Doris L. Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich. University of North Carolina Press, 1996. (Chapter 1 – One Reich, One People, One Church!: the German Christians) Hochstadt, Steve. Part II (the Context of Christian Anti-Semitism) Jacobs, Introduction, Chapters 1, 5, 6
Theme Five
Preventing Genocides Week 15: April 30 Readings: Staub, Ervin. "Preventing genocide: Activating bystanders, helping victims, and the creation of caring." Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 2, no. 3 (1996): 189.
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