Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Class overview

This course will explore five genocides that occurred in the last century. Beginning with a half semester spent on the study of the Holocaust, students will use personal testimonies, literature, research, and video to gather a full understanding of the causes and effects of the Holocaust. The second half of the semester will be spent exploring and comparing the causes and effects of genocides in the Ottoman Empire, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Much of the class depends on student discussion, participation, reading, writing, and research. This course seeks to explore, through some of the most devastating examples of inhumanity, the importance of humanity and human dignity. Through inquiry, analysis, and interpretation students will gain a deep understanding of why and how genocide occurs. Students will be required to think critically about complex issues of group and individual identity, prejudice and discrimination, principles of democracy, ethics of war, international response, and resistance and rescue. There are no easy answers to these complex questions. Students will examine the small steps, the individual decisions, and think critically about human behavior that led to mass atrocities and discover that these events were not inevitable and therefore prevention is possible.