[Anthropgrad] Research School of Humanities - Key Thinkers Lecture 27th May

[Sharon Komidar]

Dear All, would you please circulate the following on your email lists.
Apologies for cross posting. Many Thanks, Sharon.

 

The Research School of Humanities presents,

The 2nd Key Thinkers lecture, 

 

Tuesday 27th of May, 5 - 6.30pm, Conference Room, Old Canberra House,
ANU.

 

Raphael Lemkin, Creator of the Concept of Genocide

John Docker

Adjunct Professor, Research School of Humanities, ANU.

 

So pervasive a notion has genocide become in contemporary discussions of
the state of the world, the seemingly endless violence that
characterizes history, and what it means to be human, that it is almost
surprising to consider that as a concept it only appeared just over half
a century ago. The term was created by the brilliant Polish-Jewish
jurist Raphael Lemkin (1900-59) in his book Axis Rule in Occupied
Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for
Redress, published in 1944. Lemkin was also the prime mover in the
discussions that led to the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. When Lemkin died in New York on 28
August 1959, seven people attended his funeral. Most of his family had
perished in the Holocaust. Yet he left a rich legacy for social thought
and for international law.

 

According to Lemkin, genocide could involve sharply destructive episodes
or acts or events, but it could also, he argued, be a longer-term
process such as the destruction and replacement of indigenous peoples by
settler-colonies. Since its beginning, the concept has been embroiled in
argument and controversy, which show no sign of abating as the pressing
contexts of world history continuously change. Questions that have
arisen over the last sixty years include: are there forms of genocide
which do not involve mass killing? What are the criteria for assessing
intention in genocidal events and processes? Do genocides necessarily
involve state action or leadership? What is meant by cultural genocide?
And finally, to what extent must our definition of genocide for the
purposes of historical scholarship conform to the definition used in
international law?

      

John Docker is adjunct professor in the Research School of Humanities,
ANU. He is the co-author, with Ann Curthoys, of Is History Fiction?
(2005), and his The Origins of Violence will be published in late 2008.

 

Convenor: Ned Curthoys - ned.curthoys at anu.edu.au

For general enquiries please contact:
Phone: 6125 2434
Email: administration.rsh at anu.edu.au 
Web: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/

All Welcome
Please circulate widely