LEMKIN AND THE GENOCIDE CONVENTION

Catalog description

In this research seminar, we will examine the history of the Genocide Convention through and investigation of Raphael Lemkin's life, debates surrounding the Convention's working, and its use in law and in politics the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will read important works on Lemkin's life, including Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel Quo Vadis, which was the inspiration for much of his interest in mass atrocity, as well as Lemkin's own writings and legal and historical studies of the Convention. We will visit the two archives in New York City that house Lemkin's work and students will conduct primary document research on some aspect of Lemkin's life and/or the Genocide Convention itself. The resulting research papers will be written with the aim of proposing a panel presentation at a local conference and/or submission for publication to a Genocide Studies journal.