| |
|
SYLLABUS Hist. 360/2AA and Soc. 367/2AA
THE HISTORY AND SOCIOLOGY OF GENOCIDE SINCE 1933
Fall 2008
Prof. Frank Chalk Course Web Site: Via your “MyConcordia” portal.
Faculty Office: S-LB-1029-5 MIGS Web Site Address: http://migs.concordia.ca/
Office hours: Tues., 20:40-21:25 (and by appointment)
Phone: 848-2424, ext. 2404
E-Mail: drfrank@alcor.concordia.ca
Course Objectives:
Kurt Jonassohn and I taught this course for the first time at Concordia University in 1980. When we introduced the first half of the course, it was the first university course in the world to study genocide from ancient times to the present. This may still be the case, although there are now many universities with courses on genocides since 1900. The objectives of this course are to give you a firm grasp of the history and sociology of genocide, to advance your analytical skills, and to help those of you who are interested to master the writing of history from primary sources. We accomplish these goals through the comparative and historical examination of a number of cases of genocide, including the Holocaust, and several post-1945 cases, particularly Cambodia in the 1970s and Rwanda in 1994. This course also seeks to introduce students to contemporary issues in the labeling of cases, the evolution of international legal, diplomatic, economic and military measures to prevent, interdict and punish genocide, the phenomenon of genocide denial, and the memory of genocide. Students seeking careers in human rights advocacy, law, diplomacy, journalism and communications should find this course of special assistance.
The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights sponsors a series of Friday workshops. Students in this class are invited to attend them. For an up-to-date list of topics and presenters, as well as more information about MIGS and its research projects, news and links, the MIGS web site: (http://migs.concordia.ca/).
Students interested in further work on genocide will find the courses offered by History and Sociology/Anthropology professor Erica Lehrer on the Holocaust and Memory in the Aftermath of Mass Violence of particular relevance (see http://cerev.concordia.ca/ for more information about her work).
The Evaluation of Your Work
The weighting of marks for this course will be distributed as follows:
• 30% for the mid-term exam
• 30% for the final exam
• 30% for the final version of your primary research paper
• 5% for class participation and 5% for attendance based on regular, steady attendance at lectures and informed participation in discussions which shows evidence of having completed and thought about the week’s assigned reading before the class discussion. You will also be invited to volunteer for class events involving role playing and debates, if time permits. Parts of several topical videos will be shown in class. These are sometimes difficult to watch due to the inhumanity they relate or depict. You should never feel compelled to watch a video; if you begin to feel uncomfortable while watching one, please leave quietly and return to class when it is over. We will all understand your feelings.
Although our Lectures will focus on the issues raised in assigned readings, a great deal of important new material will be presented in the lectures. To satisfy the requirements of class discussions, exams and your research paper, you are responsible for mastering the material contained in the lectures and the reading. Try not to miss any classes; if you do miss one, be sure to get the notes from a classmate and to talk with me if you have any questions.
Texts (Paperbound Editions at the Bookstore, SGW Campus)
- Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Cases Studies. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
Recommended As Supplementary Reading
- Leo Kuper, GENOCIDE. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.
- Alison Des Forges, LEAVE NONE TO TELL THE STORY: GENOCIDE IN RWANDA. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999. This vital, lengthy study is also available as full text on the Web via the MIGS web page Related Links, Rwanda buttons.
- Peter Uvin, AIDING VIOLENCE: THE DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISE IN RWANDA. West Hartford, Conn.: Kumarian Press, 1998.
- Kurt Jonassohn and Karin Solveig Björnson, GENOCIDE AND GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press, 1998. Also on sale at Bookstore.
Please Enter These Important Dates and Deadlines for Your Research Paper and Examination Responsibilities in Your Agenda Now
Sept. 16: Research paper proposal forms will be handed out in class. The course research package should be printed out from this link. To receive permission for the topic and sources for your research paper, you must schedule and attend an appointment with me in my office (LB 1029-5) between 17 September and 29 September. We will discuss your research topic and I will give you my advice regarding sources. I will distribute an appointment sign up sheet at the class meeting on 16 September. I will pass around an appointment schedule in class on that date. Be sure to bring to class on 16 September your work schedule, your social schedule, and your Agenda or appointment book, so you are well prepared to make a definite date to see me without fail, record it clearly in your appointment book, and show up at the appointed time.
Sept. 30: Your Mid-Term Exam questions will be distributed in class today. Your answers are due at the start of class on 14 October. The marked exams will be returned on 21 October.
Sept. 30: Your completed research paper proposal form will be collected in this class meeting. Your proposal will state your paper topic, give a brief discussion of the topic that you propose to research chosen from the course research guide list and present a brief preliminary bibliography of your major primary and secondary sources for the paper.
Nov. 4: If you want my comments on a draft of your research paper, you must give it to me no later than this class meeting.
Nov. 18: At the start of class, hand in the final revised version of your research paper. It should be in proper Chalk/Turabian History format (For the required format, see http://www.bridgew.edu/Library/turabian.htm and the two course guides— "Some Ground Rules for the Final Research Paper" and “Scholarly Citation”. Note that your paper must be properly footnoted or endnoted and must include an annotated evaluative bibliography based on these handouts. No other note and bibliography formats or styles are permitted for this course.
Dec. 9: Bring your take-home final exam answers to Prof. Chalk’s slot at the History Dept. Office mailboxes near LB-1001-5 before 3:00 p.m. today. To ensure no last minute difficulties such as computer and printer difficulties, you are strongly encouraged to submit your answers before 9 Dec.
THE HISTORY AND SOCIOLOGY OF GENOCIDE--COURSE OUTLINE
Please always come to class having read and thought about the reading listed for that date. All the assigned reading is contained in the required text, the Concordia Library web site, and the World Wide Web.
2008--FIRST TERM
Sept. 2 Week 1 Course Outline, Course Research, the Research Paper, and Introduction to the Use of the Library; Review of Definitions and Typologies; The Origins of Genocide
*Chalk & Jonassohn, Part I
*Ton Zwann, “On the Etiology and Genesis of Genocide and Other Mass Crimes Targeting Specific Groups.” A Report presented to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Amsterdam: Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. University of Amsterdam/Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, November 2003. 44 pages.
*Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1 July 2002)
Sept. 9. Week 2 The Holocaust
*Chalk & Jonassohn, Review Part I and Part II, The Holocaust.
*Donald Bloxham, “Bureaucracy and Genocide” (unpublished paper), Berlin, January 2005.
Recommended: Norman Cohn, WARRANT FOR GENOCIDE: THE MYTH OF THE JEWISH WORLD-CONSPIRACY AND THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION, first half of book.
Tuesday, Sept. 16: Deadline for withdrawal with tuition refund from fall-term courses
Sept. 16 Week 3 The Holocaust
*Gunnar Heinsohn, “What Makes the Holocaust a Uniquely Unique Genocide,” Journal of Genocide Research,
vol. 2, no. 3 (2000): 411-430.
*Jeffrey Herf, “The ‘Jewish War’: Goebbels and the Antisemitic Campaigns of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 19, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 51-80.
*Christopher Browning, “Initiating the Final Solution: The Fateful Months of September-October 1941,” Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC: USHMM, 2003).
*Omer Bartov, “From the Holocaust in Galicia to Contemporary Genocide: Common Ground—Historical Differences,” Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC: USHMM, 2003).
Recommended:
Michael Zimmermann, “The National Socialist ‘Solution of the Gypsy Question’: Central Decisions, Local Initiatives, and Their Interrelation,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 15, no. 3 (Winter 2001): 412-427.
Geoffrey J. Giles, “Why Bother About Homosexuals? Homophobia and Sexual Politics in Nazi Germany,” J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Annual Lecture, 30 May 2001, , U.S. Holocaust Memorial, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Washington, DC.
Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, “The Politics of Uniqueness: Reflections on the Recent Polemical Turn in Holocaust and Genocide Scholarship,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 13, 1 (Spring 1999): 28-61.
Norman Cohn, second half of WARRANT FOR GENOCIDE.
Sept. 23 Week 4 Resistance to Genocide (including the Holocaust and the Baha’is of Iran); Soviet Genocides during World War II
*Nechama Tec, “Jewish Resistance: Facts, Omissions, and Distortions,” Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC: USHMM, 1997; 3rd printing, 2001).
*Friedrich W. Affolter, “The Specter of Ideological Genocide: The Baha’is of Iran,” War Crimes, Genocide & Crimes against Humanity, vol. 1, no. 1 (January 2005): 75-114.
*Chalk & Jonassohn, Part II, chapter on "The USSR under Stalin"
*Eric Weitz, “Racial Politics without the Concept of Race: Reevaluating Soviet Ethnic and National Purges,” Slavic Review, 61, 1 (Spring 2002): 1-29.
Recommended:
“Jewish Resistance”
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005213
Also read on this site the Related Articles on Jewish Uprisings in Ghettos and Camps, 1941-1944; Spiritual Resistance in the Ghettos; and Armed Jewish Resistance: Partisans
Sept. 30 Week 5 Genocide since World War II: The 1965 Mass Murders in Indonesia and East Timor; Burundi
*Chalk & Jonassohn, Part II, Indonesia; Burundi; and East Timor
* Marek Brzezinski, “United States Policy Toward Genocide in Indonesia, 1965-1966. Seminar paper for History 630G, Concordia University, November 2005.
* Robert Cribb, “Indonesia”
* René Lemarchand, “Burundi” and The Burundi Killings of 1972
* James Dunn, “East Timor”
Recommended:
Ford, Kissinger and the Indonesian Invasion of East Timor, 1975-76: Declassified Documents of the U.S. Department of State. Read introduction and any documents you wish.
United Nations Operations in East Timor: The Transition and Its Aftermath
Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (January 2006).
The Commission is an independent statutory authority that inquired into human rights violations committed on all sides, between April 1974 and October 1999. It aimed to facilitate community reconciliation with justice for those who committed less serious offenses. The Commission could not give amnesty.
Oct. 7 Week 6 Genocide since World War II: Bangladesh and the Native Peoples of Latin America
* Chalk and Jonassohn, Part II, Bangladesh and the Indians of the Amazon
Oct. 14 YOUR TAKE-HOME MID-TERM EXAM ANSWERS ARE DUE AT TODAY’S CLASS. THEY WILL BE RETURNED ON 21 OCTOBER.
Oct. 14 Week 7 Genocide since World War II: Cambodia
* Chalk & Jonassohn, Part II, Cambodia
* Kenton Clymer, "Jimmy Carter, Human Rights, and Cambodia," Diplomatic History, 27, 2 (April 2003): 245–78.
*
Brenda Fewster, “Feeding the Khmer Rouge,” a chapter from “Seeing Red: American Foreign Policy Towards Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1982.” M.A. Thesis, Concordia University, 2000.
Oct. 21 Week 8
Genocide since World War II: Bosnia and the Former Yugoslavia
Professor Paul Garde, An Historic Overview of the Balkans Region and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (PBS Frontline). Available at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/karadzic/bosnia/history.html
Bette Denich, "Dismembering Yugoslavia: Nationalist Ideologies and the Symbolic Revival of Genocide," American Ethnologist, vol. 21, No. 2 (May 1994): 367-390.
Garth Massey, Randy Hodson, and Dusko Sekulic, "Ethnic Enclaves and Intolerance: The Case of Yugoslavia," Social Forces, vol. 78, No. 2 (Dec. 1999): 669-963.
Oct. 28 Week 9 Genocide since World War II: Rwanda
Frank Chalk, “Challenges Facing the Next United States Administration: Addressing the Hot Spots In Africa Today,” a paper presented at “Africa: An Assessment of the New Realities,” Second Annual Conference on Africa of the Southern Center for International Studies, 1 December 2000, Atlanta, Georgia.
Lee Ann Fujii, “Transforming the Moral Landscape: The Diffusion of a Genocidal Norm in Rwanda,” Journal of Genocide Research 6, 1 (March 2004): 99-114.
Scott Alexander Strauss, Conclusion: The Order of Genocide, chap.10 in “The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda,” Doctoral dissertation in Political Science, University of California (Berkeley), Spring 2004. 375-403.
Recommended:
Alison Des Forges, LEAVE NONE TO TELL THE STORY: GENOCIDE IN RWANDA (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999), Introduction, Propaganda and Practice, April 1994: “The Month That Would Not End,” and The Organization. Available on the Web. Go to: http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda
(Note: Tuesday, Nov. 4th is the last day for academic withdrawal from fall-term courses.)
Nov. 4 Week 10 Genocide since World War II: Sudan
Robert O. Collins, “The Sudan”
Nelson Kasfir, “Death in Darfur: But is it genocide?” Current History, 104, No. 682 (May 2005): 195-202.
René Lemarchand, “Unsimplifying Darfur”. December 2005. Also available at: http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/2005/12/unsimplifying-darfur.html
Frank Chalk, “Stopping the Killing in Darfur is Not on Sudan’s Agenda.” October 2005.
Recommended:
Human Rights Watch/Africa, “Global Trade, Local Impact: Arms Transfers to All Sides in the Civil War in Sudan,” August 1998. Available on the Web at: http://www.hrw.org/reports98/sudan
Nov. 11 Week 11 Preventing Genocide: Can We Do It? Do We Know the Early Warning Signals? What Do We Mean by the Political Will to Intervene? What are the Roots of Genocide?
Thomas Cushman, “Is Genocide Preventable? Some Theoretical Considerations,” Journal of Genocide Research, 5, 4 (December 2003): 523-542.
Barbara Harff, “No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1965,” American Political Science Review 97, 1 (February 2003): 57-73.
Lawrence Woocher, “Deconstructing ‘Political Will’: Explaining the Failure to Prevent Deadly Conflict and Mass Atrocities,” Journal of Public and International Affairs, 12 (Spring 2001): 179-206.
Ervin Staub, “Genocide and Mass Killing: Their Roots and Prevention,” chap. In Peace, Conflict and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st Century, Daniel J. Christie, Richard V. Wagner, and Deborah Dunann Winter, eds. (New York: Prentice Hall, 2000), pp. 76-86.
Nov. 18 Week 12 International Intervention to Prevent Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity: The Responsibility to Protect Report--Can It Be Operationalized? What Role Should the Media Play in Preventing Genocide and Resolving Conflict? Can NGOs Serve As Our Eyes and Ears for Early Warning?
International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, Report o f the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect [Also known as the R2P Report] (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2001), Synopsis and chaps. 1-4, and chaps. 7-8. The complete report is available at this web site: http://www.iciss.ca/pdf/Commission-Report.pdf
John Bolton, ex-US Ambassador to UN, attacks R2P, Toronto Globe & Mail, 3 November 2008.
George Jonas attacks R2P in “It’s the Goody-Goodies Who Frighten Me the Most,” National Post, 13 September 2008.
Frank Chalk, “Intervening to Prevent Genocidal Violence: The Role of the Media.” Chap. In The Media and the Rwanda Genocide (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2007), pp. 375-380.
Edwin Bakker, “Early Warning by NGOs in Conflict Areas.” Chap. in Non-State Actors in International Relations, Bas Arts, Math Noortmann, and Bob Reinalda, eds. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), pp. 263-277. Also available at: http://www.kun.nl/cicam/early-warning.pdf
Nov. 25 Week 13 Legal Accountability for Genocide: Can We End Impunity through Prosecution in International and Domestic Courts? What New Methods Can We Develop to Detect the Intentions of Governments Heading Towards Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity?
Jeffrey S. Morton and Neil Vijay Singh, “The International Legal Regime on Genocide,” Journal of Genocide Research, 5, 1 (2003): 47-69.
Martin Mennecke and Eric Markusen, “The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Crime of Genocide,” chap. in Genocide: Cases, Comparisons and Contemporary Debates. Steven L. Jensen, ed. Copenhagen: The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2003, pp. 293-359. Available at this URL:
http://www.diis.dk/graphics/CVer/Personlige_CVer/Holocaust_and_Genocide/genocide_cases_comparisons.pdf
William A. Schabas, “Bringing Rwandan Génocidaires to Book,” Working Paper GS 11, Yale Center for International and Area Studies Working Paper Series, 1999.
Prosecutor v Akayesu Case ICTR-96-4-T. Summarized in Diane Marie Amann, “International Decisions,” The American Journal of International Law, 93, 1 (January 1999): 195-199.
Russell Schimmer, “Tracking the Genocide in Darfur: Population Displacement as Recorded by Remote Sensing,” Genocide Studies Working Paper No. 36, Yale Center for International and Area Studies Working Paper Series, 2008.
Frank Chalk and Danielle Kelton, “Mass Atrocity Crimes in Darfur and the Response of Government of Sudan Media to International Pressure,” chap. 5, in The World and Darfur: International Response to Crimes Against Humanity in Western Sudan, Amanda Grzyb, editor. Montreal: McGill-Queens Press, forthcoming in April 2009.
|
|
|
|
|
