Rescheduled: War, Genocide & Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work

A lecture by Cathy Schlund-Vials
Thursday, April 3
3:00p.m.
Walter Library Conference Room 101



Dr. Schlund-Vials is an Associate Professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. She is the Director of the UConn Asian American Studies Institute and the Faculty Director for Humanities House. She was awarded the 2011 AAUP "Teaching Promise" award (at the University of Connecticut). In 2013, she was the recipient of the Association for Asian American Studies's "Early Career Award."

Her research interests include refugee cultural production, critical race theory, immigration law, human rights, and contemporary ethnic American literary studies.

She has recently completed her second book, War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work (University of Minnesota Press, Fall 2012), which is focused on genocide remembrance and juridical activism in Cambodian American literature, film, and hip hop.

Dr. Schlund-Vials is currently working on a third project, tentatively titled "Imperial Coordinates: War, Containment, and Asian American Critique," which engages a spatial reading of U.S. imperialism through Asian American writing about militarized zones, internment camps, and relocation centers.

Sponsored by: Asian American Studies, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota Press.

Badzin Fellowship Call for Applications Extended

Bernard and Fern Badzin Graduate Fellowship in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2014-15



The University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Department of History invite applications from current doctoral students in the UMN College of Liberal Arts for the Bernard and Fern Badzin Graduate Fellowship in Holocaust and Genocide Studies for the academic year 2014-15. The Badzin Fellowship will pay a stipend of $18,000, the cost of tuition and health insurance, and $1,000 toward the mandatory graduate student fees.

Eligibility: An applicant must be a current student in a Ph.D. program in the College of Liberal Arts, currently enrolled in the first, second, third, or fourth year of study, and have a doctoral dissertation project in Holocaust and/or genocide studies. The fellowship will be awarded on the basis of the quality and scholarly potential of the dissertation project, the applicant's quality of performance in the graduate program, and the applicant's general scholarly promise.

Required application materials:

1) A letter of application (maximum 4 pages single-spaced) describing the applicant's intellectual interests and dissertation research and the research and/or writing which the applicant expects to do during the fellowship year
2) A current curriculum vitae for the applicant
3) An unofficial transcript of all graduate work done at the University of Minnesota
4) TWO confidential letters of recommendation from U of MN faculty, discussing the quality of the applicant's graduate work and dissertation project and the applicant's progress toward completing the degree, sent directly to the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Deadline: All application materials must be received by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies electronically at chgs@umn.edu, no later than 3:00 pm on Friday, April 11, 2014. The awardee will be announced Friday, April 25, 2014.

CHGS and University Departments and Centers comment on the Gasthof dinner

Minneapolis group 'plays' Nazi: Sorry, it's no trifle
by ALEJANDRO BAER, SABINE ENGEL, RICK MC CORMICK, RIV-ELLEN PRELL, RUTH MAZO KARRAS, and KLAAS VAN DER SANDEN
Star Tribune
March 19, 2014

It's an insult to those who suffered in the Holocaust and to those who campaigned then (and since) against such evil.

Late last week, City Pages published photographs that showed men dressed in German SS uniforms seated in the main dining room of the northeast Minneapolis restaurant Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit, surrounded by Nazi flags. According to a participant, this was a World War II historical re-enactment meeting, "just like any club that has a party."

In Germany and several other European states, laws prohibit the public use of symbols of Nazism -- in particular, flags, insignia and uniforms. The reason: It assaults the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously smearing or defaming segments of the population.

While in the United States the First Amendment gives constitutional protection to this type of conduct -- no matter how offensive its content -- the public display of racist or extremist symbolism usually has been followed by indignation, outrage and demands for action.

To read the entire article please click here.

IAS Collaborative Reframing Mass Violence presents Glenda Mezarobba

Brazilian Truth Commission: Is It Time to 'Reframe' the Gross Human Rights Violations?
Glenda Mezarobba
Thursday, March 27
3:00-4:30pm
1-109 Hanson Hall



Glenda Mezarobba, United Nations Development Project Representative for the Brazilian Truth Commission

Glenda Mezarobba provides an overview of the Brazilian Truth Commission and reflects on the meaning and the implications of the work of countries, like Brazil, to revisit their legacies of dictatorship (1964-1988). She presents possibilities of these contemporary processes to re-interpret and re-frame the atrocities themselves and to improve the quality of Brazil's democratic institutions.

Organized by the IAS Reframing Mass Violence Research Collaborative. Cosponsored by the Human Rights Program, and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Spring Educator Workshop: An Overview of Genocide in 1990s and Early 2000s

One of the series of events to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Genocide in Rwanda
An Overview of Genocide in 1990s and Early 2000s and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda: A Case Study
Instructor: Samuel Totten, Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Arkansas
Saturday, April 19
9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Conference Room 325 Coffman Union, East Bank of U of MN



In this educator workshop, visiting scholar Samuel Totten will begin by discussing the origins, causes and responses to genocide within the scope of human rights and international law. He will then give an overview and summary of genocides perpetrated in Africa and beyond in 1990s including the Nuba Mountains; Srebrenica; and Darfur before examining in depth, as a case study, the 1994 Genocide of Rwanda. Totten will finish by addressing the latest outbreaks of violence in the world, which crimes against humanity have been perpetuated, and noting where there is a fear of genocide breaking out.

Participants of this workshop will receive resources (including one of Totten's books) and materials to develop curriculum to integrate into their classrooms. This workshop will address the 2011 Minnesota Academic Standards for Social Studies as they relate to human rights, international law, and genocide.

Cost: $25 includes parking, a copy of one of Samuel Totten's books, resources, and lunch
CEUs: 6
Registration deadline: April 5, 2014
To register click here
Cancellation deadline: If you need to cancel, write to Deborah Jane at outreach@umn.edu by April 5, 2014. If you cancel after this date, you will not be eligible for a refund.
The Institute for Global Studies in partnership with The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Human Rights Program are hosting a series of events to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. The events will include a public conference, a student conference, and a K-16 teacher workshop. The objectives of the commemorative events are: promoting public understanding of what happened in Rwanda, discussing the immediate responses of the international community to the violence, and analyzing the long-term consequences that the cataclysmic failure to prevent the genocide had on international policy and action.
Sponsorship made possible in part by the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Fund at the Minneapolis Foundation.
For a complete listing of events, participating scholars and sponsors please click here.
Photo: Men with weapons (taken by Totten in Nuba Mountains, January 2013)

Laughter in the Dark: Newly Discovered Songs and Sketches from the Terezín/Theresienstadt Ghetto, 1942-44

A Lecture by Lisa Peschel, University of York's Department of Theatre, Film and Television, with musical performances by Ryan Lindberg, Emily Zimmer and Peter Vitale
Thursday, April 3
7:30 p.m.
Lloyd Ultan Hall Ferguson Hall
Free and open to the public

Jewish prisoners at the Terezín concentration camp and ghetto performed cabaret and comedy sketches for their fellow prisoners. The scripts were then lost for over 60 years before Lisa Peschel, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, discovered them during interviews with some of the camp survivors.

Twin Cities performers Ryan Lindberg and Emily Zimmer, will present a selection of the lost songs and sketches, many which have not been performed since World War II.

The performances will be interwoven with spoken explanations by Peschel. She will outline how the plays came to light and their role in helping prisoners deal with life in the ghetto.

Sponsored by: Center for Austrian Studies, European Studies Consortium, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies.

Carla Manzoni, PhD Candidate, Spanish and Portuguese to present at the next HGMV workshop

Argentina's Collages of Memory: Aesthetic heritage in post-dictatorial film Los Rubios (2003)
Holocaust, Genocide, Mass Violence Workshop
Thursday, March 13
3:00 p.m.
Room 609 Social Sciences



Los Rubios (The Blonds)
In 1977, when she was four years old, Albertina Carri's parents vanished without a trace, victims of Argentina's brutal military junta. In The Blonds, (or Los Rubios, her parents' nickname) the young Argentinian filmmaker travels with her crew across Buenos Aires to unravel the mystery of her parents' life, disappearance and death. Attacking the shifting projections of memory from many fronts, Carri enlists an actor, her parents' comrades, fading photographs and happy Playmobil* dolls to investigate complicated questions of identity and responsibility.

Carla Manzoni was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is currently a PhD candidate (A.B.D since April, 27. 2012) at the Spanish and Portuguese Department, University of Minnesota. She holds a MA in Hispanic and Lusophonic Literatures and Cultures at the same university and previous studies in her native Argentina in Public Relations (undergraduate) and Communication Management (post-graduate).

Carla has worked in political communication, diverse media -such as TV, radio and film- and cultural non-for-profits. She is currently working on her dissertation as wells as on her conservation project which attempts to create an archive of unedited Latin American independent videoart and experimental audiovisual.

For information on the workshop and future presentations please click here.

To particpate please contact Wahutu Siguru at siguru@umn.edu.

Director of Night and Fog Alain Resnais dead at 91

Alain Resnais, Acclaimed French Filmmaker, Is Dead at 91
3-02-2014