Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide

Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide
Name	Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide
Established	1981
Type	Research institute
Location	Tucson, Arizona
Parent institution	University of Arizona
Director	James W. Loewen

Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is an academic research center dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of mass violence, genocide, and the Holocaust. The center links historical inquiry with contemporary analysis by convening scholars from Holocaust studies, Genocide studies, Human rights, Jewish studies, and Rwandan genocide scholarship, fostering comparative work on episodes such as the Armenian Genocide, Cambodian genocide, Bosnian Genocide, and Holodomor. Its work engages public institutions including museums like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, foundations such as the Ford Foundation, and international bodies including the United Nations.

History

Founded in the early 1980s at the University of Arizona, the center emerged amid a growth of institutional programs in Holocaust studies, paralleling developments at the Yad Vashem Holocaust research center, the Wiener Library, and the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Early collaborations included faculty from departments associated with scholars influenced by Elie Wiesel, Raul Hilberg, and Primo Levi, and partnerships with archives like the Library of Congress and the British Library. Over successive decades the center expanded from Holocaust-focused pedagogy to comparative genocide research, coordinating symposia with entities such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and engaging public controversies echoing cases like the Cambodian Tribunal and debates surrounding the Armenian Genocide recognition.

Mission and Research Focus

The center’s mission emphasizes interdisciplinary inquiry into causes, processes, and aftermaths of mass atrocity, drawing on methodologies from History, Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, and Law. Research concentrates on perpetration and collaboration typologies studied alongside literature from Hannah Arendt, legal frameworks from the Genocide Convention, and documentary evidence comparable to collections held by the Arolsen Archives. Comparative projects examine genocidal episodes including the Herero and Namaqua Genocide, Nanjing Massacre, Rohingya persecution, and twentieth-century campaigns such as the Stalinist repressions and Nazi Germany. The center also pursues restorative initiatives linked to tribunals like the International Criminal Court and truth commissions modeled on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Academic Programs and Courses

The center sponsors undergraduate and graduate coursework integrated with departments including History, Religious Studies, Political Science, Jewish studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies. Seminars range from archival training using materials akin to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum holdings to methodological courses engaging texts by Sven Lindqvist, Zygmunt Bauman, and Claude Lanzmann. Graduate fellowships enable dissertation research on topics from legal responses exemplified by the Nuremberg Trials to cultural memory studies drawing on the work of Jan Assmann and Maurice Halbwachs. Joint degrees and certificate programs align with practitioners from institutions like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Collections and Archives

The center maintains curated archives of oral histories, documents, photographs, and film that complement holdings at repositories such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Shoah Foundation. Its collections include survivor testimonies comparable to collections with Simon Wiesenthal Center, archival deposits from émigré communities tied to events like the Greek Civil War (1946–1949), and microfilm of newspapers from periods including the Weimar Republic. Specialized holdings cover trial transcripts analogous to those of the ECCC and material culture related to displaced populations similar to artifacts in the International Tracing Service. The archive supports digital humanities projects mapping perpetrators and victims in ways paralleling datasets used in studies of the Bosnian genocide.

Public Outreach and Education

Public programs aim to translate research for K–12 educators, museum professionals, and civic leaders, partnering with organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Arizona Humanities Council. Teacher workshops model curricula inspired by standards adopted in states following controversies like the Wisconsin Act 10 debates and integrate primary sources comparable to those used by the Yad Vashem International School for Holocaust Studies. Outreach includes traveling exhibits, community dialogues responding to local incidents reminiscent of tensions in cases like Charlottesville (2017) and public lectures featuring scholars similar to Deborah Lipstadt, Samantha Power, and Timothy Snyder.

Events and Conferences

The center organizes annual conferences on themes such as mechanisms of mass atrocity, memory politics, and transitional justice, drawing faculty and practitioners associated with the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the American Historical Association, and the Law and Society Association. Past symposia have convened experts who have worked on commissions linked to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Sierra Leone) and tribunals like the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and have published proceedings alongside presses like Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Regular film festivals screen works akin to films by Claude Lanzmann, Adolf Winkelmann, and documentaries archived by the British Film Institute.

Leadership and Affiliations

Governance comprises university-appointed directors and an advisory board with scholars from institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University College London, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Affiliations include memberships in networks like the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, collaborations with museums including the Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington), and partnerships with NGOs such as International Center for Transitional Justice and Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Eminent affiliated scholars have included figures comparable to Seymour Drescher, Ilan Pappé, and Dina Porat.

Category:Research institutes