Established scholars as well as graduate students in all humanistic and social scientific fields are encouraged to submit proposals for panels and individual papers. The symposium organizers welcome contributions from multidisciplinary perspectives, and they further encourage panels and presentations that employ cross-cultural and transnational approaches to genocide as a historical, political, sociological, and/or legal phenomenon.
Possible areas of inquiry might include, but are not restricted to, comparative genocide, memory studies, genocide trials, the anthropology of genocide, genocide reparations, gender issues, genocide prevention and resistance, and humanitarian intervention.
These and other issues may be addressed from the disciplinary standpoints of history, anthropology, political science, sociology, legal studies, literature, philosophy, and religious studies. Although the term and concept “genocide” is a modern one, proposals need not be limited to modern genocidal phenomena. Proposals focusing on any and all attempts to eradicate a people or a culture from antiquity to the present and across the globe are warmly welcomed.
Regardless of disciplinary approach, contributions should attempt to place their subject matter within the context of societies and cultures in interaction with each other. The theme of genocide and its consequences as the products of sustained contact between societies and cultures in world history is at the core of the symposium. Specific genocides may include mass liquidations and “disappearances” in antiquity and the post-classical era, mass death visited on indigenous peoples by Western colonialism, the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, genocide and mass killing carried out by totalitarian regimes (the Nazis, Stalin, and Mao), and recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Guatemala, East Timor, Bosnia, and Sudan. The symposium organizers also welcome contributions on timely subjects relevant to world history and genocide, such as al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Boko Haram.
Panel and roundtable proposals should consist of:
1) a statement by the organizer of no more than 300 words outlining the purpose behind and focus of the panel/roundtable;
2) an abstract of up to 300 words for each paper or roundtable contribution;
3) a one-page CV for each participant, including the organizer, chair, and discussant (if any).
Panels normally consist of three (3) 20-minute papers; roundtables may have up to five (5) participants, each of whom will initially speak for no more than 10 minutes. In putting together the program, the Program Committee will, all other things being equal, give preference to proposals for complete panels and roundtables.
Proposals for individual papers, which, if accepted, will be put into panels of the Program Committee’s choice, should consist of an abstract of up to 300 words and a one-page CV.
All proposals should be submitted as MS Word documents to:
Alfred J. Andrea
Professor Emeritus of History
The University of Vermont
e-mail: aandrea@uvm.edu