Nipissing University
Department of History
History 1206
“Blood and Soil”: An Introduction to the History of Genocide
Winter 2016
We know it: Man is reasonable. But what about men?
Raymond Aron
Course Instructor: Professor Hilary Earl
Lecture Time: Thursday 10:30-12:30 pm
Location: A117
Office: H321
Office Hours: Wednesday 1:30-3:00 or by appointment
Office Phone: (705) 474-3450 ext. 4476
email: hearl@nipissingu.ca
Seminar Instructor: Dr. Mark Crane
Office: H315
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 12:30-13:30
Office Phone: (705) 474-3450 ext. 4181
email: markc@nipissingu.ca
website: http://faculty.nipissingu.ca/markc/ Please check Dr. Crane’s website in advance of
seminar, he often posts questions for discussion.
Course Description
This course surveys the history and practice of genocide as it has occurred in the modern world.
Beginning with an examination of Raphael Lemkin’s 1943 definition of genocide, the course
examines chronologically and thematically, various instances of genocide in Asia, Africa, and
Europe. The course explores the role of the nation-state, imperialism, colonialism, racism, war,
and other factors in understanding the evolution, implementation, and consequences of genocide.
It also considers the history of victim and perpetrator groups and their relationship to one
another. The objective of this course is to offer students an introduction to the brutalizing effects
on real people of modern ideologies and their link to state sponsored genocide in the twentieth
century. This is a reading intensive course and students will be expected to participate
regularly in class discussion.
Required Texts
John S. Milloy, A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School
System (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999). Available for purchase at the
textbook store
Elie Wiesel, Night (Harper Collins, reprint). Available for purchase at the textbook store.
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (New York: Bedford/St.Martins,
any edition). Available for purchase at the textbook store.
Course Materials (CM) available through Print Plus only
Course Format
This is a half-year, three credit hour course. The class meets twice a week, Thursday for lecture
and seminars are as scheduled. Lectures are approximately one hour and forty minutes (we may
go a bit longer some days) and seminars are fifty minutes. Once you have been enrolled in a
seminar on webadvisor you are not allowed to switch groups without the consent of Dr. Mark
Crane or myself
Seminars
Crane
Crane
Crane
Crane
Crane
Monday
Monday
Monday
Tuesday
Tuesday
10:30-11:30
11:30-12:30
12:30-13:30
10:30-11:30
11:30-12:30
R226
R226
H350
R226
R226
Seminars are an integral and mandatory element of this course. Twenty percent of the final grade
is based on seminar participation. Discussion and debate are the essence of historical inquiry and
seminars allow for discussion of important course themes, issues and problems raised in lectures
and the readings. Seminars also provide students with an opportunity to raise questions in a more
intimate setting than lecture.
Each student is expected to do the readings for seminar in advance and actively participate in
class discussions. Active participation means answering and asking question, demonstrating an
understanding of concepts and interpretations raised or addressed in the weekly readings,
building on the ideas of your peers or otherwise contributing to the discussion.
Attendance alone does not ensure a passing grade for Seminar. If there is some reason you
are unable to attend or participate in discussions, please contact Dr. Mark Crane or myself
immediately so that we can come to an alternate arrangement. Do NOT wait until the end of the
semester to discuss this with us; at that point no allowances whatsoever can be made. Students
can expect to be examined on the material covered in seminars as well as lectures.
E-mail and other non face-to-face communication
At Nipissing University, e-mail is a fundamental mode of communication. I am in regular e-mail
contact and like communicating in this fashion. Even though Facebook is very popular and I
know many of you use it as your primary form of communication, I will not use it for university
business so please ensure that you have a working Nipissing University email address if you
want to contact me outside class time. Or come and see me in person, I would like that.
To avoid misunderstandings and/or if you are interested in knowing how to correspond properly
and respectfully using email please read “Toward E-Mail Rules of Engagement,” by Howard
Gutman at http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/04su/email_rules.htm
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Please note, it is important to address your professors and peers with respect. Refrain from
informalities, they can be easily misconstrued. Also, when you email, please ensure that you put
the course code in the subject line and clearly identify yourself – professors have hundreds of
students sometimes and it helps if s/he knows which course you are referring to.
Use of Laptops and other technologies
Laptops may be used during lectures for note-taking only and if you could sit in the back row of
the class that would be appreciated. All the research suggests that laptops are distracting for
those around you so if you could group yourselves together those who don’t use them will not
suffer.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/laptop-use-lowers-student-grades-experiment-shows1.1401860
If you want to use the internet, surf the web, play computer games, facebook, google, email, or
instant-message, or anything else that is not course related, please leave the classroom to do so,
it’s disruptive to those around you.
Laptops may not be used in the discussion component of this course, which has been designed
around active (not mediated) engagement. Laptops may not be used during films, no exceptions
will be made unless their use is necessary for reasons of accommodation. If you are found to be
engaging in non-course related work on your laptop or phone or any other technological device
you will be asked to leave the class, if it happens repeatedly you may be asked to leave the
course permanently.
Cell phones and personal listening devices of all kinds must be shut-off at all times during
lectures and during discussion and films. If you accidentally leave your phone on and it
rings/bings/beeps/pings/sings/vibrates or makes other noises during class, please either turn it off
immediately or leave the classroom, but under no circumstances should you take a call in class.
Absolutely NO TEXTING in this class. If you are caught texting, you will be asked to leave for
the duration of the class. Should it happen repeatedly, you may be asked to leave the course
permanently.
Learning Outcomes
This course is designed to help you develop skills that university students need to be successful.
For example, some of the skills you will learn are listening, responding (talking) to your peers in
a scholarly fashion, and asking questions. By the end of your first year of university, you should
be able to listen to a lecture and then summarize the point of that lecture in a few sentences. See
the excellent TED talk on the importance of “listening”.
http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better.html?utm_source=newsletter
weekly_2011-08-03&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email
The course is also designed to introduce you to historical concepts such as change over time and
the relationship between the past and the present. In lectures and seminars you will be introduced
to the methods historians use for researching, writing, and critical thinking. Ultimately, this
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course asks you to make an historical judgment in the form of an essay by answering the
question “What is genocide?”
History Department on Social Media
http://twitter.com/NipUHistDept
https://www.facebook.com/NipUHistDept
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC29J_md6aqDpc-PmjQ3ZF2A
Formally Assessed Work
Assignment 1 Summary of argument of John Milloy, A National Crime
(due week of February 8 in seminar) ................................................….………
Assignment 2 Survivors and the TRC Report
(due week of March 7 in seminar) ….....................................….…..................
Assignment 3 ten-page essay (due week of April 4
in seminar) …………..................................…………………..….……….............
Seminar participation (on-going) .………………………………………………..
Final Exam 3b (as scheduled by registrar) ……………………………………..
10%
10%
25%
20%
35%
NB: Until you know your final exam schedule, do not make travel
arrangements or plans for that month. Instructors have no control
over scheduling. Exceptions will be made only under the most
unusual circumstances.
Assignments First Term
Assignment 1: Book Summary/argument identification. Due in seminar week of February 8. All
of the assignments for History 1206 are designed to assist you in writing a final 10 page (2500
word) essay (assignment 3), but before you can begin work on the essay you must first read, in
its entirety, John S. Milloy, A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential
School System (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999).
Your task in assignment 1 is to summarize, in your own words, the argument(s) of Milloy’s book
as they relate to the question “what were the aims and outcomes of the residential school system
in Canada?” In answering this question think about the issues he raises regarding state policy
toward Canada’s indigenous populations..
This assignment should not be longer than three (3) double-spaced pages and no shorter than
one and a half (1.5).
Locating the argument of the book is not as simple as it might seem at first. It requires that you
read and familiarize yourself with the entire content of the book and the way in which it unfolds,
not just what the author says in the introduction. You will need to consider Milloy’s arguments
over the course of the entire narrative.
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Assignment 2:
In this assignment you will read the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s volume (published on-line) on Survivor experiences
called, The Survivors Speak A Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
(2015). Available on-line at
http://www.myrobust.com/websites/trcinstitution/File/Reports/Survivors_Speak_English_Web.p
df
You will then answer the following question:
“In what ways were Indigenous Canadians’ lives impacted by the residential school system?”
In answering this question you will use evidence from this report in the form of the individual
testimonies given by various people to the Commission. You should consider issues such
language, family, geography, and physical well-being.
The purpose of this assignment is for you to evaluate the HISTORICAL usefulness of primary
sources for an undergraduate history essay on the topic of genocide. The testimony given to the
TRC is from those who experienced it and that makes what they a primary source.
This assignment must be written in essay form. There is a length requirement of no less than 3
pages and no more than 5 pages. The assignment must be typed and double-spaced in 12 point
font with one-inch margins. Remember to NUMBER your pages.
Assignment 3: 10 page essay. Due in seminar week of April 4. All History 1206 students will
write an essay assessing the following question: based on what you’ve learned in this class and
from the assigned readings below, keeping in mind that there are a plurality of Indigenous
groups in Canada, explain in what ways Canada’s Indigenous people(s) or any one group of
indigenous people experienced a genocide between the nineteenth century and the present.
NB: Please note, the TRC has labelled the residential school system in Canada “genocide.” You
may agree or disagree with the TRC’s findings, regardless of which position you adopt, you will
need to offer evidence to make your case.
In your essay you must consider this question in relationship to three issues:
1. The various definitions of genocide we have discussed in class, seminar, and the
readings (you will need to define genocide in your essay)
2. The way that different scholars think about the issue of genocide and the history of
Canada’s aboriginal people(s); that is, different historians will have different
perspectives on this question
3. The differences between cultural destruction of the group and physical destruction of the
group
Bibliography for your Assignment 3 essay: To write this essay students must use the following
sources:
John S. Milloy, A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School
System (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999)
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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The Survivors Speak A Report of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015). Available on-line at
http://www.myrobust.com/websites/trcinstitution/File/Reports/Survivors_Speak_English_Web.p
df
Raphael Lemkin, “Genocide,” in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (reprinted 2008), 79-95 (CM)
UN Convention on Genocide (December 1948). Available on-line and in your syllabus
“Residential Schools called a form of Genocide”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/residential-schools-called-a-form-ofgenocide/article2342983/print/
Dirk Moses, “Genocide and Settler Society in Australian History,” in Dirk Moses editor,
Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian
History (New York: Berghahn Books, 2005), 3-48 (CM)
Andrew Woolford, “Nodal Repair and networks of destruction: residential Schools, colonial
genocide, and redress in Canada,” in Settler Colonial Studies, vol. 3, no. 1 (2013): 65-81
https://www.academia.edu/3384250/Nodal_repair_and_networks_of_destruction_residential_sch
ools_colonial_genocide_and_redress_in_Canada
Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Genocide
Research volume 8, issue 4 (December 2006): 387-409
http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/pdfs/89.pdf
David B. MacDonald, “Genocide in the Indian Residential Schools: Canadian History thorugh
the Lens of the UN Genocide Convention,” in Andrew Woolford, Jeff Benvenuto, and Alexander
Laban Hinton (eds.), Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America (Duke University Press,
2014), 306-324 (CM)
Alex Alvarez, “Education and Assimilation,” in Alex Alvarez, Native America and the Question
of Genocide (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014), 141-158 (CM)
Blanca Tovias, “Navigating the Cultural Encounter: Blackfoot Religious Resistance in Canada
(c. 1870-1930), in Dirk Moses (ed.), Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and
Subaltern Resistance in World History (New York: Oxford, 2008), 271-295 (CM)
NB
All of your assignments are essays. As such, they must be written in essay form and with an
argument using evidence from the documents (primary) and articles (secondary). Proper
citations are required.
The Department of History at Nipissing University requires that all students adhere to the
stylistic guidelines for writing history papers as outlined in Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket
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Guide to Writing in History (NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007). Rampolla is more than a style
guide. It is also a basic introduction to the historian’s craft offering ways to think about
how you approach history and write it. It is available at the NU bookstore (and
undoubtedly there are all kinds of used copies out there as well).
Please do not use title or covering pages on any of your written assignments. Simply put the
title of the assignment, date submitted, your student number, and name on the top of the
first page of all written work.
A late penalty of 3% per day (excluding weekends) will apply for each day written work is
late up to a maximum of 50%. Extensions will be granted only for certified medical or
humanitarian reasons. As per University regulations, no papers will be accepted after the
last day of classes, nor will papers be accepted electronically. Students must provide the
instructor with hard copies.
Students must retain a copy of all written work and essay notes until the final grades are
tallied and submitted to the Registrar’s office. Also, please respect a 24-hour moratorium
on discussing any individual grade. After that please feel free to come and speak with Dr.
Crane or me about any of your assessments.
Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
What is plagiarism? Plagiarism is academic dishonesty and is a serious academic offence that
will result in disciplinary action. It is assumed that all work submitted for evaluation and course
credit will be the product of individual effort. Please read Nipissing University’s Policy on
Academic Dishonesty in the Undergraduate Calendar available on-line at
http://www.nipissingu.ca/calendar/studentpolicies_academicdishonesty.asp
Nipissing University uses plagiarism software, you may be required to submit your written work
to Turnitin.com If you have any concerns whatsoever, please do not hesitate to discuss the issue
with me or Dr. Crane.
Grading Policy
A+ (90-100%) = Exceptional. A+ papers demonstrate a thorough knowledge of concepts and
exceptional skill or great originality in the use of those concepts in satisfying the requirements of
an assignment.
A (80-89%) = Excellent. A papers demonstrate sustained development of thought, are highly
analytical, use a broad range of sources and have no grammatical or structural problems. An
excellent paper demonstrates effort, careful construction, intellectual conscientiousness and
pride.
B (70-79%) = Good. B papers demonstrate a good use of evidence with a firm grasp of the
subject matter. A good paper is written in historical context and shows a good understanding of
the relevant issues and a familiarity with the literature; there is very little evidence of
grammatical or structural problems.
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C (60-69%) = Adequate. C work is an adequate level of performance. C work demonstrates some
evidence of analytical ability and some engagement with the literature on the subject. The paper
usually emphasizes narrative over analysis, but is uninspired and lacks style and vigour. An
adequate paper demonstrates simple answers to simple problems, and generally there is some
evidence of an argument that requires further development.
D (50-59%) = Minimally acceptable/marginally passing. D work is the minimally acceptable
level at which a student can perform and not fail. A paper such as this shows only very basic
understanding of the subject matter and has a limited or irrelevant use of the sources. There is
usually some evidence of familiarity with the subject, but the ideas are underdeveloped and not
generally analytical. A minimally acceptable paper is stylistically weak with major grammatical
and structural errors.
F (0-46%) = Inadequate. Failing work. A paper such as this shows little or no evidence of
understanding of the subject matter, no use of relevant literature or attention to historical context,
and is poorly written with major grammatical and structural problems. F work does not fulfil the
requirements of the assignment.
A+
A
AB+
90-100
85-89
80-84
77-79
B
BC+
C
70-74
70-73
67-69
64-66
CD+
D
D-
60-63
57-59
54-56
50-53
F
0-49
** Students with Special needs should contact the Office of Special Needs, ext. 4235
LECTURE Schedule
Class 1 Thurs
Class 2 Thurs
Class 3 Thurs
Class 4 Thurs
Class 5 Thurs
Class 6 Thurs
Class 7 Thurs
Class 8 Thurs
Class 9 Thurs
Class 10 Thurs
Class 11 Thurs
Class 12 Thurs
Class 13 Thurs
Class 14 Tuesday
January 21
January 28
February 4
February 11
February 18 (NO CLASS, Reading Week)
February 25
March 3
March 10
March 18
March 24
March 31
April 7
April 14 (NO CLASS, Professor Earl away – Rescheduled to April 19)
April 19 LAST Class
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Class 1
Thursday January 21
Introduction to the course and explanation of assignments, map quiz, and expectations,
yours and ours
Understanding your role as a student at Nipissing University: What do professors expect?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zDLbM0X9pA&feature=related
Academic Success at Nipissing University
http://www.nipissingu.ca/departments/student-development-and-services/academicskills/Pages/Academic-Success-Program.aspx
Map Quiz (world – locate sites of genocide)
Lecture/Discussion
“Genocide and Mass Atrocity in the 21st Century: How did we get here?”
NOT on Our Watch http://notonourwatchproject.org/
NGO started by Don Cheadle, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, David Pressman, and
Jerry Weintraub
http://notonourwatchproject.org/media
01.27.2005
(Darfur is genocide; Don Cheadle on the significance of knowledge and action; Darfur is far
away and thus the people easy to forget)
http://notonourwatchproject.org/media
02.05.2007 (Cheadle and Dallaire calling for action and for the US to do the right thing)
http://notonourwatchproject.org/media
04.27.2006 (Obama/Clooney call for action)
http://notonourwatchproject.org/media
04.10.2006 (George Clooney and his father describe the conditions in the southern Sudan)
http://notonourwatchproject.org/media
01.31.2008 (Clooney at the UN/RTP calling for action by the UN)
Seminars week of January 18-21
Meet and Greet
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Class 2
Thursday January 28
Lecture
“What is Genocide? Contested Meanings, Conceptual Conundrums and theories of
Interpretation”
-
Victim group
Number killed
Perpetrators
Date and duration of killing
Motivation (intention/why)
Bystanders
Reading for Lecture
Stephen C. Feinstein, “Understanding the ‘G’ Word,” in Carol Rittner, John K. Roth,
James M. Smith (eds.), Will Genocide Ever End? (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2002), 39-44
(CM)
Seminars January 25-28
What is Genocide? Definitions: Historical, Current, and Legal
In this week’s seminar we want to explore and discuss what is at stake in defining the term
“genocide.”
Questions for Seminar Discussion
What defines genocide? Is it purely a legal concept? Different definitions come from different
disciplines: law, history, and social science, which do you find most useful?
Why? How can one distinguish between genocide on the one hand, and crimes against humanity,
ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and atrocity on the other? Discuss your understanding and
interpretation of genocide in relationship to Lemkin’s original definition.
Reading for Seminar
Raphael Lemkin, “Genocide,” in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (reprinted 2008), 79-95 (CR)
Richard Rubenstein, “Population Elimination,” in Carol Rittner, John K. Roth,
James M. Smith (eds.), Will Genocide Ever End? (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2002), 57-62
(CR)
Dirk Moses, “Conceptual Blockages and Definitional Dilemmas in the ‘Racial Century’:
Genocides of Indigenous Peoples and the Holocaust,” Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 36 (2002): 8-36
(You can access this on-line through Nipissing University’s Journal database)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/003132202128811538
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Class 3
Thursday February 4
Lecture
European Atrocity: Colonialism and Imperialism in the Belgian Congo (1876-1905) and South
West Africa (1904-1907) – the first genocide(s) of the 20th century
Interactive map of Africa
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/africa_map.htm
Film – watch on your own time
Namibia - Genocide and the second Reich (2007). 58 minutes
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-899627923732856130
Seminars February 1-4
What causes Genocide and Mass atrocities?
Reading for Seminar
Mark Levene, “A Twentieth Century Phenomenon,” in Carol Rittner, John K. Rother,
James M. Smith (eds.), Will Genocide Ever End? (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2002), 65-71
(CR)
Mahmood Mamdani, “Thinking about Genocide,” & “Defining the Crisis of Postcolonial
Citizenship: Settler and Native as Political Identities,” in idem, When Victims become Killers
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 3-14, 19-39 (CR)
Class 4
Thursday February 11
Lecture
Nationalism and the Armenian genocide (1915)
Interactive map of Europe
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/europe_map.htm
Armenian Genocide. Fergal Keane and BBC documentary (9 mins. 56 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiKXODoO8oo&feature=related
CBC 60 Minutes episode (10 mins.) about denial of the Armenian genocide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwcDvt_ki-k
Seminars February 8-11
Colonialism, imperialism, and genocide: Herero
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Reading for Seminar
Eyewitness Accounts, in Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, and Israel W. Charny (eds.),
Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views (New York & London: Garland
Publishing, 1997), 25-40 (CR)
Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Genocide
Research volume 8, issue 4 (December 2006): 387-409
http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/pdfs/89.pdf
NO CLASS 5
Thursday February 18 READING WEEK
Class 6
Thursday February 25
Lecture
Nationalism, racism, and genocide: the Holocaust part 1 (the Nazi Revolution, 1919-1939)
Seminars February 22-25
Armenian Genocide
Reading for Seminar
Eyewitness Accounts, in Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, and Israel W. Charny
(eds.), Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views (New York & London:
Garland Publishing, 1997), 64-77 (CR)
Norman Naimark, “The Armenians and Greeks of Anatolia,” in Naimark, The Fires of Hatred,
17-42 (CR)
Class 7
Thursday March 3
Lecture
War and genocide: the Holocaust part II, 1939-1945
Film and Class discussion
Stanley Milgram, Obedience (1965). 45 minutes.
Questions Milgram asked his class in 1983 on the obedience to authority experiments:
1. What is the difference between authority, power and leadership?
2. Why is disobedience so difficult for so many subjects?
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3. How is the crime of obedience paradoxical?
4. How important do you think personality factors are in relation to attitudes towards
authority?
5. Why do subjects often speed up their infliction of shocks at the end of the
experiment?
6. Some have argued the obedience to authority experiments are actually about
aggression. What evidence is there that this interpretation is incorrect?
7. Why do you think some subjects laugh – especially at the beginning of the
experiment?
8. How does one make sense of the fact that the last subject explicitly states “that man
may be dead in there,” and yet goes on to administer further shocks?
9. Examine carefully the pronoun structure employed by the last subject. Sometimes he
states “I’m going to shock you.” But at other times he states (speaking to the
experimenter “You mean you’re going to give him 450 volts…” What is the
significance of his changing use of pronouns?
10. When persons are asked to predict their own probable performance had they been in
the experiment, they typically argue that they would break off. What accounts for the
wide disparity between predicted behavior and actual behavior? How do you think
you would have reacted to the experiment?
11. Summarize the moral conflict confronting subjects.
Seminars February 29-March 3
Essay writing
Class 8
Thursday March 10
Lecture
The role(s) of Individual perpetrators and death squads (the group) in genocide
http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/05/06/rsa-animate-empathic-civilisation/ 10 minute 49
second clip by Jeremy Rifkin, titled “Empathic Civilization”.
In-class Film and discussion
Steven Okasaki, The Conscience of Nehm En
Seminars March 7-10
The experience of the survivor
Reading for Seminar
Elie Wiesel, Night (Harper Perennial, reprint). Available for purchase at the Nipissing University
bookstore.
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Class 9
Thursday March 17
Class Discussion with Dr. Earl: Group violence
Reading for class Discussion
Ervin Staub, “Psychological and Societal/Group Processes that arise from Instigating
Conditions,” and “Learning by doing in Individuals and Groups,” in idem, Overcoming Evil:
Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism (Oxford and New York: OUP, 2011), 124-131, 132139, 149-151, 166-170, 174-177, 186-194 (CR)
Alex Alvarez, “Perpetrators I: The Organizational Context,” in Genocidal Crimes (London and
New York: Routledge, 2010), 74-99 (CR)
Film
The Act of Killing. Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. 2012. 115 minutes. (available on Netflix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tILiqotj7Y
Seminars March 14-18
Colonialism and the aboriginal peoples of Canada
Reading for Seminar
Dirk Moses, “Genocide and Settler Society in Australian History,” in Dirk Moses editor,
Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian
History (New York: Berghahn Books, 2005), 3-48 (CR)
Andrew Woolford, “Nodal Repair and networks of destruction: residential Schools, colonial
genocide, and redress in Canada,” in Settler Colonial Studies, vol. 3, no. 1 (2013): 65-81
https://www.academia.edu/3384250/Nodal_repair_and_networks_of_destruction_residential_sch
ools_colonial_genocide_and_redress_in_Canada
Blanca Tovias, “Navigating the Cultural Encounter: Blackfoot Religious Resistance in Canada
(c. 1870-1930), in Dirk Moses (ed.), Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and
Subaltern Resistance in World History (New York: Oxford, 2008), 271-295 (CR)
Class 10
Thursday March 24
Lecture
(Auto)genocide and Ethnic Cleansing: The Cambodian genocide (1975-1979) and the Serb
campaign against Bosnians (1992-1995)
Slides of Professor Earl’s trip to Srebrenica
What happens to the bodies of the victims of genocide?
- Father Patrick Dubois
- Jan Gross – Golden Harvest
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-
Srebrenica memorial
Rwanda
EU: Corpses project
Interactive map of Asia
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/asia_map.htm
The Killing Fields. Directed by Roland Joffé. 1984. 141 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYoN6dmDBi8
Seminars March 21-24
Why individual people commit genocide
Reading for Seminar
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, in Alexander
Laban Hinton (ed.), Genocide: An Anthropological Reader (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,
2002), 91-109 (CR)
Alexander Laban Hinton, Why did they Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2005), 286-298 (CR)
Optional Reading
Alex Alvarez, “Perpetrators II: The Individual Context,” in idem, Genocidal Crimes (London
and New York: Routledge, 2010), 100-124 (RESERVE)
Class 11
Thursday March 31
Lecture
The Rwandan genocide (1994)
Rwandan genocide on-line archive
http://www.genocidearchiverwanda.org.rw/index.php/Welcome_to_Genocide_Archive_Rwanda
Documentary, Hope in Hell: Rwanda
Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuRq77nQirA
Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6VVnP5Rqg8&feature=relmfu
Part III
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE60ZCljDDs&feature=relmfu
Part IV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw41UCzn_nE&feature=relmfu
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Seminars March 28-31
Rape as an instrument of genocide
Reading for Seminar
Carol Rittner, “Using Rape as a Weapon of Genocide,” in Carol Rittner, John K. Roth, and
James M. Smith (eds.), Will Genocide Ever End? (St. Paul, MN: paragon House, 2002), 91-97.
Anne-Marie de Brouwer and Sandra Ka Hon Chu (ed.s), The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan
Survivors of Sexual Violence (Vancouver, Toronto, and Berkeley: Douglas and McIntyre, 2009),
11-26
Testimonies from The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence
Marie Odette Kayitesi, 35-40
Immaculee Makumi, 83, 86-87, 89-90
Clementine Nyinawumuntu, 11-112, 114-116
Optional Reading
Katharine Derderian, “Common Fate, Different Experience: Gender-Specific Aspects of the
Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 19, no. 1 (Spring, 2005),
1-25 (Available through Nipissing University Library Journal database)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/holocaust_and_genocide_studies/v019/19.1derderian.html
Optional film
Hotel Rwanda. Directed by Terry George. 2004. 121 minutes.
Class 12
Thursday April 7
Lecture
Individual and collective/national/international responses to genocide
Romeo Dallaire interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS9kggJVDHg&feature=related
Part of Ghosts of Rwanda, the US failure to intervene and why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mscLhhzQYLs&feature=related
In-class Film
In Rwanda we say: The family that does not speak dies (2004). 54 minutes DT 450. 435. I473
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Seminar April 4-7
Rwandan genocide
Reading for Seminar
Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims become Killers (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2001), 198-233 (CR)
Class 13
Thursday April 14 NO CLASS – RESCHEDULED to APRIL 19
Class 14
Thursday April 19
Lecture
1. What happens after the genocide is over? Post-genocidal justice and the transition to a new
(and peaceful) society
2. Can we predict and prevent genocide now that we know what it is?
Reading for Lecture
Philip Gourevitch, “The Life After: Fifteen years after the genocide in Rwanda, the
reconciliation defies expectations,” The New Yorker (May 4, 2009), 36-49
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=83430dca-29cd-446a-ba97729407acf4f0%40sessionmgr10&vid=1&hid=14&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3
d#db=aph&AN=38592208
Devin O. Pendas, “The Magical Scent of the Savage”: Colonial Violence, the Crisis of
Civilization and the Origins of the Legalist Paradigm of War,” in Boston College Comparative
and International Law Review
http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/schools/law/lawreviews/journals/bciclr/30_1/iclr_30_1_we
b.pdf
No Seminars April 16-19
*****************************************************************************
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Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide
Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948.
Article 1
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of
war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
Article 2
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:




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(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article 3
The following acts shall be punishable:



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(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.
Article 4
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished,
whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
Article 5
The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the
necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and, in particular,
to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated
in Article 3.
Article 6
Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be tried by a
competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such
international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties
which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.
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Article 7
Genocide and the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall not be considered as political crimes
for the purpose of extradition. The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant
extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.
Article 8
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such
action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention
and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.
Article 9
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment
of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or
any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3, shall be submitted to the International Court of
Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.
Article 10
The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are
equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948.
Article 11
The present Convention shall be open until 31 December 1949 for signature on behalf of any
Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State to which an invitation to sign has
been addressed by the General Assembly.
The present Convention shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited
with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. After 1 January 1950, the present Convention
may be acceded to on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State
which has received an invitation as aforesaid.
Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Article 12
Any Contracting Party may at any time, by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the
United Nations, extend the application of the present Convention to all or any of the territories
for the conduct of whose foreign relations that Contracting Party is responsible.
Article 13
On the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited, the
Secretary-General shall draw up a proces-verbal and transmit a copy of it to each Member of the
United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in Article 11.
The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit
of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.
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Any ratification or accession effected subsequent to the latter date shall become effective on the
ninetieth day following the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession.
Article 14
The present Convention shall remain in effect for a period of ten years as from the date of its
coming into force. It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such
Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the
current period. Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Article 15
If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become
less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of
these denunciations shall become effective.
Article 16
A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any
Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General.The
General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request.
Article 17
The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify all Members of the United Nations and
the non-member States contemplated in Article 11 of the following:
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




(a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance with Article 11;
(b) Notifications received in accordance with Article 12;
(c) The date upon which the present Convention comes into force in accordance with
Article 13;
(d) Denunciations received in accordance with Article 14;
(e) The abrogation of the Convention in accordance with Article 15;
(f) Notifications received in accordance with Article 16.
Article 18
The original of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations.
A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted to all Members of the United Nations and
to the non-member States contemplated in Article 11.
Article 19
The present Convention shall be registered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the
date of its coming into force.
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Summary of the TR commission
http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_
Future_July_23_2015.pdf pp. 1-182 for first assignment reaction paper to the report.
Assignment would be to do you agree or disagree with the comissions’s findings of cultural
genocide based on your research about “what genocide is”.
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