| Unit name | The Politics of Genocide. Causes, Cases, Consequences |
|---|---|
| Unit code | POLIM3034 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Michel |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
none |
| Co-requisites |
none |
| School/department | School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
This unit critically analyses the different approaches to explaining, understanding and dealing with the phenomenon of genocide. The first part of the unit will engage with different explanatory accounts drawing on a variety of academic disciplines. It then moves on to empirical cases in order to assess the validity and rigour of these approaches before concluding with an assessment of the different methods the international community used to proactively or reactively address genocide. It will thereby cover questions relating to political, moral and legal responsibility as well as concepts for reconciliation.
Aims:
The unit aims at introducing the students to the field of genocide studies from a conceptual as well as empirical perspective. Through the use of interdisciplinary approaches the phenomenon of genocide will be scrutinised from many different angles in order to capture its multifaceted nature and appearances. Thereby, the students should gain a clear understanding of the different ways in which genocide has been addressed and understood. Subsequently, the unit will critically assess these different approaches by looking at a number of empirical cases. These cases will be selected from different regions (Europe, Asia, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa) to avoid narrow contextual representation. The students should gain a deeper knowledge about the political processes that led to these instances of genocide and apply the conceptual and explanatory background developed at the beginning of the unit to evaluate and critically analyse the selected cases. In order to do so the unit will not just draw on historical accounts but also use accounts given by victims and perpetrators. Finally, the unit will turn to different ways in which the international community has set out to deal with the problem of genocide in political, normative and legal ways. The students should get a clear idea of the difficulties connected to questions of responsibility and the limits of political action in respect to political mass death. We will also address different ways in which reconciliation has been attempted in post-genocidal environmens and how successful these have been.
The learning outcomes will be mainly threefold. First, the students should get a wide and intricate knowledge of the varying approaches to understanding the causes of genocide. The second aim is to familiarise the students with the complexity of empirical cases to build a foundation on which to assess the different explanatory approaches. Thirdly, the students will be introduced to the different ways in which the international community has tried to deal with the aftermath of genocides specifically with the problem of political, moral and legal responsibility as well as different approaches to reconciliation.
The teaching will mainly rely on seminars in which the different texts and empirical cases will be discussed and critically analysed. The seminars will be structured along presentations and group discussions including the use of documentaries and witness accounts. Blackboard will be used to make a variety of additional information in the form of legal and political documents as well as academic articles available for the students. There will also be an online discussion board/forum where students can engage in post- or pre-seminar discussions.
There will be two summative assessments. A long, research based presentation on an empirical case (40%) and a 2500 word essay (60%).
The presentation should critically analyse the different contextual and political causes for a particular case of genocide and, based on the evidence presented, should make a case for the establishment of an international criminal tribunal and/or a truth and reconciliation committee. The presentation will draw together the three learning outcomes envisioned by integrating an assessment of the causes for a specific empirical case with the issues surrounding legal and political responsibility. It will also engage with different methods to punish perpetrators through the establishment of international tribunals as well as mechanisms for reconciliation. This presentation will make up 40% of the overall unit mark. To ensure proper documentation and the possibility for external examination the presentations will be recoded and the video file transferred to a CD. Additionally, it will be a requirement for the presenters to provide a PowerPoint presentation accompanied by a hand-out which also will be available for internal and external examiners.
The essay which will be the second summative assessment will be of 2500 word length and it will count for 60% of the overall unit mark. The essay will, again inspired by the proposed learning outcomes, assess the ability to critically analyse the phenomenon of genocide from a conceptual, empirical and normative perspective.
