HU51432a

WiSe 22/23: Mass Violence and Genocide in the Twentieth Century in Comparative Perspective

Felix Römer

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Recent events have reminded the world that mass violence is not a thing of the past. As part of Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine, Russian forces have committed mass atrocities against the civilian population, and both warring parties have traded accusations of ‘genocide’. At the same time, scholars and commentators in Germany and around the world have continued to wrestle with questions about the singularity of the Holocaust and its alleged colonial origins. Comparative perspectives on what precisely constitutes genocide and how it is different from other forms of mass violence have thus gained new urgency. This seminar introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of comparative genocide studies. While we will focus mainly on mass violence, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in the twentieth century, we will also consider premodern and colonial cases of mass killing. We will combine in-depth analyses of particular instances of genocide (the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Dafur) with comparative and thematic perspectives that cut across periods and case studies. Furthermore, we will also address conceptual questions and explore different disciplinary approaches, including perspectives from sociology and political science. The course will be held in the form of in-person class meetings close