Making Sense of Mass Atrocities: The Meanings of Genocide in Historical and Contemporary Contexts
Making Sense of Mass Atrocities: The Meanings of Genocide in Historical and Contemporary Contexts
In 2023 and 2024, Omer Bartov published essays in the Times and the Guardian exploring whether the war in Gaza could be described as genocide. His thinking drew on his expertise as a scholar of the Holocaust and on parameters the UN established in 1948. How, Bartov asks, does a state founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust stand today credibly accused of perpetrating crimes against humanity? Bartov and Shibley Telhami, a scholar of politics and diplomacy in the Middle East, will engage in a critical conversation about the concept of genocide, the history of the term, and its resonances in our contemporary context.
Omer Bartov is Dean's Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University.
Shibley Telhami is Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at University of Maryland.
Peter Wien, Professor of History at UMD, will facilitate their conversation.