Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 11-18, 1999

Volume 28, Number 8

Seminars examine genocides
by Nazis and Cambodians

The Genocide Studies Program and the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS) are hosting two seminars this week at Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave.

The first, "The Breakdown of Cambodian Systems of Justice: Some Examples from Literature," will take place at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 13, in Rm. 103. George Chigas, associate director of the Cambodian Genocide Program at YCIAS will be the featured speaker.

In the second seminar, Robert Gellately, professor of history at Clark University, will discuss "Nazi Plans for Serial Genocides" on Thursday Oct. 14, at 1:30 in Rm. 203.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Gellately's presentation is part of the fourth semester of the YCIAS Genocide Studies Program's Sawyer Seminar Series, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This semester's theme, examining "The Detection and Prevention of Genocide," was launched in September with presentations on the philosophical and practical challenges of genocide "early warning" and prevention by visiting scholars Henry Huttenbach, professor of history at the City University of New York and editor of the new Journal of Genocide Research; and Barbara Harff, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy.

GSP Initiatives

The Genocide Studies Program (GSP) at YCIAS developed from both the Cambodian Genocide Program and the Sawyer Seminar Series. Since 1998 GSP has sponsored research on the phenomenon of genocide by a number of scholars now working in Luce Hall. For example, Ghanaian historian Edward Kissi, a postdoctoral fellow at GSP, is completing a book comparing the tumultuous revolutions of the 1970s in Ethiopia and Cambodia.

The GSP has also provided one-year Mellon dissertation grants to Yale graduate students working on topics related to genocide in Armenia and the Balkans, Bosnia, Burma and Rwanda, in the disciplines of history, sociology, political science and anthropology, respectively.

The GSP has published a series of 11 Working Papers on various issues and case studies, focusing on the themes of analysis and description of genocide, recording and documentation, and transition and recovery.

The GSP is directed by Ben Kiernan, the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History. Charles Mironko, former head of the Cultural Unit of the Organization of African Unity, is the program's associate director.

Kiernan is currently teaching a history graduate seminar on 'The Prehistory of Genocide.' In August, with Professor Stephen Wheatcroft of Melbourne University, he organized a research conference in Australia on the subject of "Comparative Famines and Political Killings: Causation, Scale and State Responsibility." Participants presented papers on topics ranging from the Irish Famine of the 1840s to Stalin's Terror, the "Great Leap Forward" in China, the 1965-66 Indonesian massacres, and the experiences of Australia's Aboriginal people.

The GSP recently launched a new website at www.yale.edu/gsp.

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Seminars examine genocides by Nazis and Cambodians

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