Conference on ‘Forgotten Genocides’ to Be Held at Rutgers

On Tues., March 29, an academic conference titled “Forgotten Genocides: Memory, Silence, Denial” will be held at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J. Organized by Rutgers’ Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights (CGCHR), and Bergen Community College’s Center for Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation (CPJR), the conference will be comprised of seven panels.

Following welcoming remarks by Steven Diner, chancellor at Rutgers University, the first panel, “Forgetting and Remembering”—scheduled for 8:35 a.m.—will feature five presenters: Erica Lehrer, history/anthropology, Concordia University (Canada); Daniel Feirstein, sociology, UNTREF (Argentina), whose presentation is titled “Thinking Beyond the Binary Model: National Security Doctrine in Latin America as a Way of Rethinking Genocide as a Social Practice;” Doug Irvin, CGCHR; Alexander Hinton, CGCHR/anthropology; Thomas LaPointe, CPJR/English, Bergen Community College. The latter three will present “Hidden Genocides: Power, Knowledge, Memory.”

The second panel, “Power, Knowledge, and Memory,” chaired by CGCHR’s Aldo Civico, will begin at 10 a.m. and will feature two panelists: Carol Kidron, anthropology, University of Haifa (Israel), on “Cambodian-Canadian Inspirational Tales of Survival: Treading the Margins of Remembering and Forgetting Genocide Suffering;” and Hannibal Travis, law, Florida International University, on “Constructing ‘The Armenian Genocide’: How Genocide Scholars Unremember the Assyrian and Greek Massacres and Deportations of 1914-23.”

The third panel, on “Power, Resistance, and Indigenous Peoples,” will begin at 11:30 a.m. with three panelists: Frank Chalk, history, Concordia University (Canada), on “Indian Residential Schools in Canada: The Issue of Genocide and Public Policy;” Chris Mato Nunpa, indigenous studies, Southwest Minnesota State University, on “Nits Make Lice: Genocide and the Destruction of Indigenous Peoples of the United States;” and Donna-Lee Frieze, philosophy, Deakin University (Australia), on “Remembering Benevolence, Forgetting Genocide: The Stolen Generations in Australia.”

Panel four, “Identity and Difference,” chaired by Isaias Rojas-Perez, CGCHR/anthropology, will begin at 2:30 p.m. Dirk Moses, history, Eastern European University (Italy), will present “Has the Holocaust Helped Us Remember or Forget Genocides?” Krista Heghburg, anthropology, United States Memorial Holocaust Museum, will discuss, “What the Law Does Not Recall: Repair, ‘Historical Reality’, and the Legal Order in the Czech Republic.”

The fifth panel, “Memory, Silence, Denial,” scheduled for 4 p.m., will have two presenters: Adam Jones, political science, University of British Columbia Okanagan (Canada), on “The Great Lakes Genocides: Forgotten Histories, Forgotten Precedents;” and Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, history, University of Pannsylvania, on “Forgetting Genocide Before it Happens: Genocidal Categories and German Political Culture Before World War I.”

“Museum Exhibition,” the sixth panel, will begin at 5:15 p.m. and will be chaired by Nela Navarro, CGCHR/modern languages at Rutgers. Igor Kotler, the director of the Museum of Human Rights, Freedom, and Tolerance, will present “From a ‘Crime Without a Name’ to ‘Genocide’: The Simele Massacre of Assyrians, Iraq, August 1933.”

The seventh and final panel, “Hidden Genocides,” will be chaired by Alex Hinton, CGCHR/anthropology, Rutgers, and will begin at 7 p.m. The two panelists are Walter Richmond, languages, Occidental College, on “Circassia: A Small Nation Lost to the Great Game;” and Greg Stanton, conflict resolution, George Mason University, on “The Ukrainian Genocide: Why Marxist Genocide Scholars and Journalists Ignore and then Deny Genocides Committed by Marxist-Leninist Regimes.”

Taner Akcam, history, Clark University, is the keynote speaker of the conference. His lecture, titled “Why the Armenian Genocvide Was Forgotten: Turkish conceptions of National Security and History,” will be held on March 28 at 7 p.m.