Genocide Studies

""The School of Historical Studies is pleased to offer this fully-funded studentship for October 2014 entry to its Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programme. The studentship will pay UK/EU tuition fees for three years (October 2014 - September 2017) and includes an annual stipend worth £13,590.

Research Areas and Supervision

The successful applicant will conduct research towards a PhD project of her/his own design, within the broad area of World War One and its aftermath in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland.

This project recognises the origins of the University of Leicester as a living memorial to the fallen and survivors of the Great War. We seek applications from students interested in working on a project that has a specific geographical focus but which will also address more general issues in the current historiography of the period and engage with existing scholarship.  The chronological focus might extend beyond the conflict itself to include its public and private consequences, including the development of practices of remembrance or construction of war memorials. Preference will be given to applications that demonstrate the potential of the research to engage audiences outside the university and to engage in knowledge transfer with local voluntary organisations.""

“Approaching Perpetrators: Ethnographic Insights on Ethics, Methodology and Theory,” is a three day workshop taking place at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia from May 14-16, 2014. Building upon a conversation initiated surrounding a panel at last year’s American Anthropology Association (AAA) meeting, participants are taking a nuanced approach to the personal, social, cultural, economic, political, and historical contexts through which people become perpetrators of violence, broadly defined. Participants will examine events from more subtle forms of everyday violence to genocide and related mass atrocities, as well as the political and historical contexts that influence transitioning and post-conflict communities’ responses to perpetrators’ actions. The following research questions will be addressed: What does the word “perpetrator” mean and how is it applied in different settings? What might ethnographic fieldwork among perpetrators look like? What are some of the particular ethical and methodological challenges associated with conducting fieldwork among perpetrators? And  how can engaging with perpetrators enhance existing anthropological theories regarding everyday violence and mass atrocities, and their aftermath?

""The Politics of Reparations and Apologies examines the evolution and dynamics of reparation politics and justice.  The volume introduces the key concepts, theories, and terms associated with social movements and in particular, the redress and reparation movement (RRM).  Drawing  from RRMs that have their foundation in World War  II--the  German  genocides,  the  United  States  internments,  and  the  Japanese  “comfort  women” system--  the volume explores each case study’s relative success or failure in achieving its goals and argues that there are overarching trends that can explain success and failure more generally in the RRM movement. Using the backdrop of international criminal law and normative concepts of reparations, the volume establishes and  analyzes the roles of reparations and apologies in obtaining transitional justice.

In each case study, there is a detailed rundown of the political actions that were attempted to obtain redress and reparation for the victims, of how successful the attempts were, and of the crucial factors which influenced the relative success or failure. Crucially, the volume offers a comparative framework of the actions that contribute to a successful outcome for transitional justice.  With the increasing normative expectation of justice in post-conflict situations, this volume is a valuable resource for researchers in international affairs, human rights, political science, and conflict studies.""