CfP - 5th Global Conference on Genocide, 26-29 June 2016, Jerusalem, Israel

Call for Papers

The International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS) emerged from a conference in Berlin in January 2005 with the goal to provide Genocide Studies with a non-partisan forum through which to present research and analysis on any aspect of genocide as well as other forms of collective violence. Recent symposia on genocide and mass violence, as manifested in the series of Global Conferences organized by INoGS since 2009 in Sheffield, Brighton, San Francisco, and Cape Town, have witnessed intensified scholarly engagement with, and debates around, a range of issues of fundamental importance to the field. These include theoretical approaches to the subject; the legal and ethical bases upon which to approach episodes of extreme violence; and the need to develop more effective means of combatting and striving to prevent mass violence globally. Much scholarship has furthermore moved beyond the view that equates genocide with mass murder, returning instead to a view more in tune with the perspective of Rafael Lemkin, who coined the term in the 1940s in order to deal with a much wider spectrum of social and cultural destruction.

Since the emergence of Genocide Studies in the 1970s, it diverged both theoretically and methodologically from the more established Holocaust Studies. Holding the 2016 INoGS conference in Jerusalem, where Holocaust Studies emerged in the 1960s, offers a valuable opportunity to overcome this division and examine how research into one field enriches the other, especially as scholarship on the Holocaust exceeds the work on any other case of genocide or mass violence.
While all cases of genocide and mass violence are of interest, the conference will place special interest on one particular debate in the last two decades that has revolved around the place of the Holocaust in the history of modern genocide and mass violence—in Europe, in European colonies, and in postcolonial states across the globe. In-depth discussions on a range of subjects—from colonial violence, to genocidal violence during World War II, to postcolonial conflict and the mass atrocities of counterinsurgency, and from the motivations of perpetrators, to the meanings of witnessing in the twentieth century, to international law and mechanisms of transitional justice—have underscored the analytical potential of treating the Holocaust as integral to modern processes of imperial collapse, social disintegration, and the rise of nation states in Europe and the Middle East. The literary genres and traditions of victims' accounts that emerged from various cases of genocide and mass violence, and the scholarly engagement with them, constitute another central arena for examining the Holocaust as part and parcel of the modern experience. It is in these ways that bringing the INoGS conference to Jerusalem, a city in which foundational collective traumas intersect and are experienced in everyday life, offers an opportunity to engage with the main theme of the conference: Intersections: Holocaust Scholarship, Genocide Research, and Histories of Mass Violence.

Three or four keynote speakers will address the main theme from different disciplinary perspectives. The conference will also feature two special roundtable panels:
(1) “Collective Traumas and National Identities” will include papers on Jews, Palestinians, as well as other cases
(2) “Studying Genocide in a Site of Conflict and Violence” will address the challenges of researching and teaching the Holocaust, genocide, and mass violence in Israel in the midst of the ongoing conflict between Jews and Palestinians

Subjects of interest to the conference also include, but are not limited to:
- Individual cases of genocide and mass violence, including the Holocaust
- Comparative analyses of genocide and mass violence
- The Holocaust in current comparative genocide studies
- Colonialism and mass violence
- Deportations, expulsions, and other forms of violent population transfer
- Writing the history of victims
- Victims of the Holocaust, genocide, and mass violence in comparative perspectives
- War crimes and crimes against humanity
- Transitional justice procedures and mechanisms, reconciliation, and restitution
- International law and the International Criminal Court
- Gender and genocide
- Post-genocide societies
- Denial of the Holocaust, genocide, and mass violence
- Remembrance cultures
- Environmental changes and catastrophes and mass violence
- Internally displaced people and refugees
- Human rights
- Representations of genocide in film, literature, art, music, and other media
- The arms industry and its role in facilitating conflict and mass atrocities

We welcome submissions from scholars and advanced doctoral students in all disciplines. Participation is not restricted to INoGS members. Prospective participants need to upload proposals in the form of abstracts (250 words max.) and bios (200 words max.) via the conference website: http://www.inogs2016.org/
Panel submissions need, in addition, to provide an abstract (250 words max.) explaining the rationale of the panel.

Application for travel grants: The organizers will provide a number of grants of up to $1000 each to support the participation of advanced doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and scholars who teach in institutes that provide no travel bursaries. Priority will be given to applicants who will arrive from institutes and universities in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. If you would like to be considered for one of these grants, please fill the relevant online form.

For enquiries, please contact Raz Segal: raz.segal@gmail.com

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

http://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/termine-28868