Learning Outcomes:
1) Ability to process source materials and develop original arguments through focused case studies. Students will also learn to think about these case studies in a thematic way, which can be built upon in their own research and allow them to demonstrate detailed knowledge of the events, actors, and processes through which mass violence occurs.
2) Evaluate conflicting interpretations and revisionist narratives of the causes and consequences of genocide and mass violence.
3) Critically engage with diverse primary and secondary sources, including unconventional sources and multidisciplinary methodologies.
4) Gain experience applying the skills of historians; research skills, synthesising readings and lecture content, meeting deadlines, and presenting historical findings through written work and small group discussions.
5) Write analytical essays to the standards of a third-level history student.
Indicative Module Content:
- Definitions and understandings of terms such as ‘genocide’, ‘crimes against humanity’, ‘war crime’, etc.
- Case Study I: the Armenian Genocide
- Case Study II: the Holocaust and WWII
- Case Study III: Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge
- Case Study IV: the Rwandan Genocide
- How have acts of genocide been prosecuted and perpetrators brought to justice?
- Are our acts of commemoration and remembrance doing harm or good?