“From Denial to Repair: Addressing Genocide in the 21st Century”
Virtual Panel Discussion
Friday, March 5th/12:30pm-2:00 pm ET
Moderator: Prof. George Fourlas, Hampshire College, Ph.D.
Panelists: Dr. Dikran Kaligian & Dr. Henry Theriault
A brief general history of the Ottoman Genocide of its Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek citizens, including the causes and ideological motivations as well as how it affected the United States at the time. Some aspects of the Turkish government’s denial campaign in recent years will be discussed.
Other aspects of genocide denial will be discussed including its contemporary implications for Armenians in Armenia, Karabakh, and the Diaspora. The issue of reparations and its import for the pursuit of justice will be addressed and related to the Armenian case. Other cases of mass human rights violations and the use of transitional justice will be examined.
This event is organized by the Ethics and the Common Good Project and co-sponsored by the In/Justice Learning Collaborative
Panelists:
George Fourlas, SHIFT assistant professor of applied ethics and the common good, holds a B.A. in philosophy and legal studies from the University of San Francisco and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Oregon. George’s teaching and research are problem-centric, focusing on issues of peace and justice, and drawing on various fields: ethics, social-political philosophy, critical race theory, decolonial theory, global/international studies, and conflict resolution. He has taught a range of courses related to this work; his publications have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the International Journal of Transitional Justice, Critical Philosophy of Race, Philosophy and Social Criticism, and Radical Philosophy Review. He is currently working on a book that addresses issues of race, reconciliation, and solidarity among Middle Eastern Americans.
Henry C. Theriault is currently Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Worcester State University in the United States, after teaching in its Philosophy Department from 1998 to 2017. From 1999 to 2007, he coordinated the University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights.
Theriault’s research focuses on genocide denial, genocide prevention, post-genocide victim-perpetrator relations, reparations, and mass violence against women and girls. He has lectured and given panel papers around the world. Since 2007, he has chaired the Armenian Genocide Reparations Study Group and is lead author of its March 2015 final report, Resolution with Justice. He has published numerous journal articles and chapters. With Samuel Totten, he co-authored The United Nations Genocide Convention: An Introduction (University of Toronto Press, 2019).
In 2017, Theriault was elected President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and was re-elected in 2019. He is founding co-editor of the peer-reviewed Genocide Studies International. From 2007 to 2012 he served as co-editor of the International Association of Genocide Scholars’ peer-reviewed Genocide Studies and Prevention and has guest-edited for the International Criminal Law Review and the Armenian Review.
Back in the 1990s, when getting his Ph.D. in Philosophy from UMass Amherst, Theriault occasionally played ultimate frisbee at Hampshire College with the UMass team.
Dikran M. Kaligian is the Managing Editor of the Armenian Review and teaches at Worcester State University. He received his Ph. D. in Middle Eastern and German history from Boston College. His book, Armenian Organization and Ideology under Ottoman Rule, 1908-1914 was published by Transaction Publishing and was just published in Turkish by Aras Publishing.
His articles have appeared in the Journal of Genocide Research, Genocide Studies International, the Armenian Review, and in the books Through a Lens Darkly: Films of Genocide and in Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks.