“Educating a New Generation: The Model of the ‘Genocide & Human Rights University Program,’” an article by Dr. Joyce Apsel, will be featured in the forthcoming issue of the prestigious Human Rights Review, describing and analyzing this innovative, higher education course. The journal is known for providing a forum where human rights issues and their underlying theoretical and philosophical foundations can be developed and debated. It publishes articles and essays from all academic areas and addresses the many human rights issues that concern, or ought to concern, the world today.
Joyce Apsel is a historian and attorney. She is also the founder and director of the non-profit Rights Works International, a former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), the current president of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, and a faculty member of the Genocide and Human Rights University Program (GHRUP)—a course conceptualized and organized by the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (IIGHRS), a division of the Zoryan Institute—for the past nine years. Her 2010 article, “Darfur: Historic Processes and Regional Dynamics,” received the Outstanding Article Award from the Peace, War, and Conflict section of the American Sociological Association.
Apsel draws on her experience as a Master Teacher in the Liberal Studies Program at New York University, where she received the 2008-09 NYU Distinguished Teaching Award, to analyze the unique design of the GHRUP, as a model for educating a new generation of scholars in genocide and human rights studies. She supplemented her personal experience with the program by conducting a formal, written survey of all students who have attended the program.
As the GHRUP prepares to launch its 10th year under the directorship of eminent professor Roger W. Smith, Apsel said, “Ten years is a long time and quite an accomplishment for the Zoryan Institute… It actually is quite remarkable to see the development and the added layers and richness of the course as it has evolved over the past decade.”
Commenting on the significance of the article, Prof. Herbert Hirsch, professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, a renowned specialist on genocide prevention, an editor of Genocide Studies & Prevention, and one of the distinguished faculty members of the GHRUP, stated, “It is so rewarding to see that the GHRUP continues to gain recognition as it develops a critical network of students and scholars worldwide who are informed, aware, and active when it comes to genocide research, publication, education, and prevention. This growing network fostered by the GHRUP creates a ripple effect of mobilized disciples, worldwide, all working towards a common goal—genocide prevention.”
As Apsel explains, it all started with the Zoryan Board of Directors’ vision to implement a comparative educational program for students in higher education. The goal was to study the Armenian Genocide, the prototype of modern genocides, in a comparative and interdisciplinary analysis with other cases of genocide, in keeping with the spirit of Rafael Lemkin, who coined the term. This approach stresses the current relevance of the study of the Armenian Genocide as a point of reference.
A distinctive feature of the GHRUP that enhances the profile and quality of the course is that each summer some 10 scholars and specialists from different disciplines and areas of concentration are invited from around the world to Canada to teach and share their research with students, scholars, and activists in a seminar setting.
Now in its 10th year, with over 250 graduates from at least 20 different countries, the GHRUP strives to achieve multiple goals: to encourage the development of a new generation of young scholars to take up the study of genocide professionally at an advanced level; to illuminate the causes of genocide, the way it takes place, and its devastating impact; to bring a measure of healing and relief to various communities through the sharing of great trauma of many peoples; to study and teach in an interdisciplinary manner; and to use this comparative approach to identify the characteristics of genocide so that it becomes predictable and, in turn, hopefully preventable.
Yair Auron, a noted genocide scholar and professor in the department of sociology, political science and communication at the Open University of Israel, remarked, “As an educator, a genocide scholar, a Zoryan Board member, and someone who has taught at the GHRUP, I am very pleased to see this program touch the lives of so many young people and help set them on a path on which they may contribute to helping prevent genocide. This is the responsibility of all of us as human beings, and my colleagues at the Zoryan Institute are to be congratulated for their contribution to this important mission.”
As Apsel states, the GHRUP is a training ground for a new generation of students and scholars about the comparative study of the Armenian and other genocides, and a range of human rights issues. She notes, however, that even after a decade of running the program, the challenges are ongoing, from funding, to organization, to how the GHRUP will continue innovative and critical educational approaches. The program is expensive to run, and tuition covers only a fraction of the actual cost. Hence, finding resources, such as an endowment, sponsorships, donations, and other funding to continue the program is critical, especially if the course is to keep improving.
The Zoryan Institute is the parent organization of the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, which runs an annual, accredited university program on the subject and is co-publisher of “Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal” in partnership with the IAGS and the University of Toronto Press. It is the first non-profit, international center devoted to the research and documentation of contemporary issues with a focus on genocide, the diaspora, and armenia.
For more information, contact the Zoryan Institute by emailing zoryan@zoryaninstitute.org or calling (416) 250-9807.
Be the first to comment