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USF to host international scholars on violence, memory and human rights
[01.26.2012]

TAMPA, Fla. -- More than 50 international scholars and activists will gather at USF to share research on “Violence, Memory, and Human Rights,” focusing on the never-ending incidents of mass violence that continue to plague the world. The conference will be held Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in the Marshall Student Center.

This three-day conference, presented by the USF Humanities Institute, offers a unique, interdisciplinary forum, in which historians, anthropologists, poets, legal scholars, forensic scientists, philosophers and more will examine questions such as: What is the impact of mass violence on surviving individuals, families and communities? How are massacres remembered -- or forgotten? When and how can perpetrators be brought to justice, and victims acknowledged and compensated?

Speakers will address events in multiple nations that have experienced the trauma of mass violence, including Rwanda, Guatemala, Peru, North Korea, Thailand, Nigeria, Argentina, Spain, Nazi Germany – and many more. Panels will address themes such as “The Language of Mass Violence,“ “Art as Witness,” and “Is Recovery Possible?” Participants include speakers from across the United States, as well as Australia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Peru and Spain.

In addition to the panels, invited speakers include international human rights activist and former Amnesty International Director David Hawk, who will speak on “Crimes against Humanity in the Hermit Kingdom” (North Korea), internationally-renowned historian and genocide scholar Frank Chalk (Concordia University), who will speak about “Mobilizing the Will to Intervene,” and philosopher Margaret Urban Walker (Marquette University) who will address the power of “truth-telling” in post-conflict situations. A special screening of the documentary “Prosecutor,” about the International Criminal Court, will be presented by its director, Barry Stevens, in dialog with the audience.

Humanities Institute Director Elizabeth Bird is looking forward to this conference.

“This is a truly exciting program that puts USF at the forefront of the international debate on violence and transitional justice scholarship,” Bird said.

The conference also will feature a special showing of the exhibit “Witnessing a genocide: the children of Darfur,” which features drawings made by Darfuri children in refugee camps in Eastern Chad, provided by Waging Peace, in conjunction with the USF Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center.

The conference will take place in MSC 3708, 3709 and 3711. The first session will be at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, and continues until 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Full program, speaker bios and other information about the conference are available on the conference’s website. It is open to all faculty and students at USF, as well as community members.

Co-sponsors include the Departments of History and Anthropology; USF World; Research One Program; USF Office of Research; College of Arts and Sciences; the Applied Anthropology Graduate Organization; STAND- A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition at USF; and USF Amnesty International Group.

-USF-

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