Deadline for Applications: 10 March 2023

The fifth edition of our Summer Institute for Genocide Studies and Prevention will be held June 5-9, 2023 at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire (US). Keene State, a public liberal arts institution, is home to the first undergraduate major in Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the United States. The College’s specialized library collection and related campus resources provide unique facilities for teaching and research in genocide studies.

Objectives

The 2023 Summer Institute, supported by the Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation and hosted by the Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State, follows on the success of our previous Institutes in supporting the following objectives:

• Promote study, research and teaching in the growing field of genocide studies and prevention as a self-standing scholarly discipline that is distinct and independent from the existing schools of academic inquiry
• Encourage participating institutions to develop courses, academic modules and foreign study programs incorporating genocide studies and prevention into department teaching
• Strengthen institutional capacity in terms of teacher-scholars in genocide studies and prevention, with a goal of developing interdisciplinary academic specializations in the field (that is, a major, minor, or area of concentration) at participating institutions.

Program

Drawing on a global range of historical case studies, and current crisis spots, the 2023 Summer Institute will focus on the study, research and teaching of genocide prevention across all phases of the conflict cycle:

• preventing genocide from ever taking place (upstream prevention or the “before” analysis of risk factors and warning signs),
• preventing further atrocities once genocide has begun (midstream prevention or the immediate, real-time response tools available during crisis), and
• preventing future atrocities once a society has begun to rebuild after genocide (downstream prevention or the “after” efforts to foster resiliency in a post-atrocity society).

The in-person Summer Institute is intended primarily for full-time college or university teachers interested, or already teaching, in the field of genocide studies. Faculty intending to develop new courses or academic programs incorporating genocide studies and prevention into department teaching are particularly encouraged to apply. Applications from current PhD students and post-docs as well as museum, center, and NGO educators also are encouraged. The Institute is intentionally interdisciplinary, so welcomes applications from across the disciplinary spectrum. 

Director and Instructional Team

The Institute director is Dr. James Waller, Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State and a Visiting Scholar at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast.  Waller is author of Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (2002, 2^nd ed., Oxford University Press), Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide (2016, Oxford University Press), and A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland (2021, Oxford University Press). He also serves as the Director of Academic Programs for the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, an international NGO supporting States in the developing and strengthening of policies and practices devoted to the prevention of genocide and mass atrocity. In 2017, Waller was the inaugural recipient of the Engaged Scholarship Prize from the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

The Summer Institute’s instructional team also will include internationally recognized academics and practitioners in the field of genocide studies and prevention from the US, Latin America, Africa, and Southeastern Europe.  In addition, recognizing the expertise participants will bring to the Institute, each participant will have an opportunity to workshop syllabi, course ideas, modules, assignments, etc. with fellow participants in a shared learning community. Participants also will join an alumni network of over 80 previous Institute fellows around the globe.

Past participants have described their Institute experience as “the single-most important, and best, professional development educational experience I have been a part of in my 19 years since I first entered graduate study” and felt they were “able to take away tangible and digestible tools and information to share with my students and broader network of scholars and activists.”

Financial Support

Due to a generous gift from the Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation, the Summer Institute is funded to provide fellows five nights of single lodging in an air-conditioned campus dormitory and food for the entirety of the Institute. In addition, US-based participants will receive a $800 fellowship stipend to help offset travel costs to and from the Institute.

International participants, given the greater costs associated with travel, will receive a $1,200 fellowship stipend (please note that stipends for non-US residents are subject to a withholding tax of 30% as required by US law). There is no tuition fee for the Institute. 

The Institute is funded to allow for 20 participants. Participants are expected to be at the Institute for its duration (arrival on Sunday afternoon/evening June 4 by 5PM for an opening dinner and departure after 1PM on Friday afternoon June 9). 

The success of previous Institutes has been built, in large part, on the residential and relational experience of the program. Should public health considerations not allow for that in-person component, the Institute will be postponed until the following summer rather than convened virtually.

Application

To apply for the 2023 Summer Institute, please send a:

(a) statement of interest,

(b) list of related courses or modules currently taught (or interested in developing), and

(c) CV to Dr. James Waller at jwaller@keene.edu. 

The application deadline is March 10, 2023 with selection decisions communicated by April 3, 2023.