The Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University will host the Second International Graduate Students’ Conference for Holocaust and Genocide Studies on March 29 – April 1, presented in partnership with the Danish Institute for International Studies and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
The conference will provide a forum for doctoral students to present interdisciplinary research projects to peers and to established scholars in the field. Doctoral students working on the topic of Holocaust or genocides in Africa, Asia and America will present and discuss their latest research. The conference will reflect a full range of interdisciplinary approaches, concepts, and methods in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, with U.S. scholars and others from Denmark, Israel, Canada, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Slovenia, Germany, Poland, Romania and France.
The conference will open with a public keynote address at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 29 in Tilton Hall, 950 Main Street. Dr. Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History, Brown University, will deliver the opening address, “War and Genocide: The Holocaust as a War Goal or an Obstacle to Victory.”
Professor Bartov, one of the leading scholars in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, has held many prestigious fellowships and is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books include The Eastern Front, 1941-45 (1985), Hitler’s Army (1991), Murder in Our Midst (1996), Mirrors of Destruction (2000), Germany’s War and the Holocaust (2003), The “Jew” in Cinema (2005), and Erased (2007). The conference continues throughout the day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday March 30 – April 1, with a series of panels for participants and invited guests. Scholars will examine questions regarding the aftermath and memory of the Holocaust, Armenian and comparative genocide. Panelists will discuss rescue efforts during the Holocaust, perpetrators, and bystanders of the Holocaust and a comparative transnational memorialization of genocides. Another panel will examine psychological implications of encounters between victims and perpetrators and survival.
The mission of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is to educate undergraduate and graduate students about genocide and the Holocaust; to host a lecture series, free of charge and open to the public, to use scholarship to address current problems stemming from the murderous past; and to participate in public discussion about a host of issues ranging from the significance of state-sponsored denial of the Armenian genocide and well-funded denial of the Holocaust to intervention in and prevention of genocidal situations today. The keynote address is sponsored by the Buster Foundation in honor of Dr. Richard ’71 and Libby ’72 Cohen. Major funding for the conference is provided by the Louis and Ann Kulin Endowed fund.
For more information, contact the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, at 508-793-8897; chgs@clarku.edu.
Since its founding in 1887, Clark University in Worcester, Mass., has a history of challenging convention. As an innovative liberal arts college and research university, Clark’s world-class faculty leads a community of creative thinkers and passionate doers and offers a range of expertise. Clark is nationally recognized in the areas of psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. Clark’s students, faculty and alumni embody the Clark motto: Challenge convention. Change our world. www.clarku.edu
