The application deadline is Friday, March 22, 2024, with selection
decisions communicated by Friday, April 5, 2024.
The sixth edition of the Summer Seminar for Genocide Studies and Prevention will be held June 10-14, 2024 at the University of Connecticut (UConn) in Storrs, CT. UConn is one of the top ranked public universities in the nation and includes the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, home to one of the largest undergraduate and graduate programs in human rights in the country. The Human Rights Archives at UConn include the Nuremberg trial documents of Thomas J. Dodd as well as a growing collection of primary source materials related to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Objectives: The 2024 Summer Seminar, supported by the Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation and hosted by the Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs of the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute at UConn, follows on the success of previous Seminars in supporting the following objectives:
(1) 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.
(2) Encourage participating institutions to develop courses, academic modules and foreign
study programs incorporating genocide studies and prevention into department teaching.
(3) 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 2024
Summer Seminar 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 Seminar 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 Seminar is
intentionally interdisciplinary, so welcomes applications from across the disciplinary spectrum.
Director and Instructional Team: The Seminar director is Dr. James Waller, Christopher J.
Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice at the University of Connecticut 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, 2nd 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). In 2017,
Waller was the inaugural recipient of the Engaged Scholarship Prize from the International
Association of Genocide Scholars.
The Summer Seminar’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 Seminar, each participant will have an opportunity to workshop syllabi, course ideas,
modules, assignments, etc. with fellow participants in a shared learning community. Participants
will also join an alumni network of nearly 100 previous Seminar fellows around the globe.
Past participants have described their Seminar 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.”
Any additional questions about the Summer Seminar can be directed to Dr. James Waller at
james.waller@uconn.edu
Financial Support: Due to a generous gift from the Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation, the
Summer Seminar is funded to provide fellows five nights of single lodging in an air-conditioned
campus dormitory and food for the entirety of the Seminar. In addition, US-based participants
will receive a $800 fellowship stipend to help offset travel costs to and from the Seminar.
Internationally-based participants, given the greater costs associated with travel, will receive a
$1,200 fellowship stipend (please note that stipends for some non-US residents are subject to a
withholding tax of 30% as required by US law). There is no tuition fee for the Seminar.
The Seminar is funded to allow for 20 participants. Participants are expected to arrange their
travel to be at the Seminar for its duration (arrival on Sunday afternoon/evening June 9 by 5PM
for an opening dinner and departure after 1PM on Friday afternoon June 14). The success of
previous Seminars 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
Seminar will be postponed until the following summer rather than convened virtually.
Application: To apply for the 2024 Summer Seminar, please send a (a) statement of interest, (b)
list of related courses or modules currently taught (or interested in developing), and (c) CV to
Mr. Tyler Goldberger, Continuing Education and Alumni Coordinator for the Summer Seminar,
at tjgoldberger@wm.edu.
HRE USA 