Violent Action and Body Knowledge: A Sociological Perspective on Torture

"Violent Action and Body Knowledge:
A Sociological Perspective on Torture"
Tuesday, March 10, 4pm
1114 Social Sciences
CHGS Lecture, co-sponsored with the Department of Sociology and the Human Rights Program

Katharina Inhetveen
Sociology Chair, Siegen University, Germany

The lecture will explore torture, as a case of systematized violent action, using analytical instruments informed by the sociology of the body and the sociology of knowledge. The focus is on relations between torture practices and body knowledge. It is argued that the differences as well as the similarities between specific cases of torture, treated in a comparative perspective, can be better understood by taking into account not only the actual torture practices themselves, but also their interconnectedness with body knowledge and body images as socio-cultural constructions. Professor Inhetveen will discuss how violent action and body knowledge mutually influence, shape and reshape each other.

HGMV Workshop

Thursday, March 12
3:00pm
710 Social Sciences
Orry Klainman (Department of History)
"Jewish DP Immigration Desires after World War II"



Orry Klainman is a Ph.D. student in the History Department at the University of Minnesota. Previously he completed a master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. His work focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of the modern Middle East with a particular emphasis on moments of popular violence and insurgency.

The larger project of Klainman's M.A. thesis was concerned with the strength and application of Zionist rhetoric focused on European Jewish immigration to Palestine. While researching this subject Klainman came across an archive of interviews conducted by a psychology professor from Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology named David Boder. In 1946, Boder interviewed 118 people, most of them Jewish "displaced persons," making him arguably the first person to record oral histories from Jewish survivors. In going through Boder's interviews, Klainman recorded important information from each one and ended up with some interesting data. Klainman will share information about the immigration desires of displaced Jews after World War II.

"The most important discover of Nazi-looted art since the Allies discovered the hoards in the salt mines and the castles" (Jonathan Petropoulos, Claremont McKenna College)

The Guardian. "Picasso, Matisse and Dix among works found in Munich's Nazi art stash". November 5, 2013.

NY Times. "Cornelius Gurlitt, Scrutinized Son of Nazi-Era Art Dealer, Dies at 81". May 6, 2014.

Yehudit Shendar, retired Deputy Director and Senior Art Curator, Yad Vashem Museum (Jerusalem), appointed as part of a special task force to research provenance of this cache of looted works.

Yehudit Shendar
"The Insatiable Pursuit of Art"
April 14, 2015
7pm
Riverview Gallery, Weisman Art Museum

Ukranian Scholar's keynote as part of International Symposium (March 4-6, 2015)

The international symposium coordinated by the IAS collaborative, Reframing Mass Violence, examined the dynamics of public remembrance in post-communist Europe. The keynote address was by John-Paul Himka, Professor of History and Classics, University of Alberta. In case you missed it, or would like to review, video is available here.

Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Post-Communist Europe
Despite the Holocaust's profound impact on the history of Eastern Europe, the communist regimes successfully repressed public discourse about and memory of this tragedy. Since the collapse of communism in 1989, however, this has changed. Professor Himka discusses recent political, social, and cultural developments that have facilitated a more nuanced and complex understanding of the continuities and discontinuities in representations of the Holocaust and the role that memory plays in contemporary discussions of national identity in Eastern Europe.



John - Paul Himka is professor of East European History at the University of Alberta. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan in 1977. He specializes in the history of the Ukraine, Eastern Europe, World War II and Holocaust memory. He is the author of several articles and books his most recent Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Post Communist Europe was published in 2013 and featured book of the Month in the CHGS Newsletter May/June 2014.
Sponsored by the Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Cosponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study, the Institute for Global Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, Department of Political Science, Department of History, Center for Jewish Studies, European Studies Consortium and the Ohanessian Endowment Fund for Justice and Peace Studies of the Minneapolis Foundation.

IL Holocaust Museum spotlights 100th Anniversary of Armenian Genocite

Chicago Tribune. February 10, 2015.

Amber Michel to present at first HGMV workshop of the spring semester

"American Islamic Organizations: Response Narrative to Counterterrorism Initiatives."
Holocaust, Genocide and Mass Violence Studies Interdisciplinary Graduate workshop
Thursday, February 5
3:00 P.M.
Room 710 Social Sciences



Amber Michel is a graduate student in the interdisciplinary Master of Liberal Studies program at the University of Minnesota. Her current research examines how counterterrorism initiatives impact Muslim organizations in America. Ms. Michel is especially interested in how the pressure of policing destabilizes Islamic civil society in the US. She works extensively with local Muslim communities on issues of civil rights, law enforcement and discrimination.



The workshop was founded to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the subject areas of Holocaust studies, genocide and memory, peace and conflict studies, human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, representations of violence and trauma, conflict resolution, transitional justice, historical consciousness and collective memory. Support fellow scholars and provide feedback at various stages of the research process, and to engage in dialogue with invited scholars.
For more information please contact Erma Nezirevic at nezir001@umn.edu.
Schedule for 2015: HGMVWorkshopSpring2015Dates-2 (1).pdf

Next HGMV Workshop: Erma Nezirevic

Thursday, February 26, 3pm
710 Social Sciences
Erma Nezirevic: "Spain Interrupted: Examining Spanish Representations of Violence in the Former Yugoslavia"



Erma Nezirevic is a Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She specializes in 20th and 21st century Iberian literatures and cultures. Her dissertation studies the way Spain evokes the Balkan Wars of the 1990s in literature and other cultural production such as photography, and how in turn that provides a political, social and cultural understanding of Spain itself. Erma currently works in affiliation with the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, where she coordinates the HGMV Workshop.



The workshop was founded to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the subject areas of Holocaust studies, genocide and memory, peace and conflict studies, human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, representations of violence and trauma, conflict resolution, transitional justice, historical consciousness and collective memory. Support fellow scholars and provide feedback at various stages of the research process, and to engage in dialogue with invited scholars.
For more information please contact Erma Nezirevic at nezir001@umn.edu.
Schedule for 2015: HGMVWorkshopSpring2015Dates-2 (1).