Summer Educator Workshop, June 20-23, 2016 -- Teaching about Genocide in Africa: Rwanda and Darfur

June 20-23, 2016
African Studies Initiative (ASI) Summer Educator Workshop
"Teaching about Genocide in Africa: Rwanda and Darfur"
sponsored by the Title VI grant

CHGS was pleased to attend and help support this week-long seminar, sponsored by the African Studies Initiative Title VI grant. This institute was co-led by Wahutu Siguru, PhD Candidate in Sociology and former CHGS Badzin Fellow, and Nancy Ziemer, high school teacher, and developed out of last summer's "Holocaust in a Global Context" institute and the subsequent curriculum development project, which Ziemer helped lead. Taking this curriculum as a foundation, the institute took a comparative approach to the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur. 

Participants gained content knowledge about the origin and legal ramifications of the term "genocide," and how various groups, such as the United Nations and the media, have addressed the two genocides. Each session included engaging activities that can be used in secondary and post-secondary classrooms. By the end of the seminar, participants gained a collection of materials for their classrooms, including resources, teaching methods, and teaching units.

Recent CHGS exhibition at Wilson Library

Displaced: The Semiotics of Identity 
Special exhibit on display from April 27 through May 13, 2016

"Syriana," Melissa Boric

Untitled, from "Silence is Golden," Bette Mittelman

"Herbert Fantle," Felix de la Concha

Displaced: The Semiotics of Identity is an on-site installation and digital exhibition that invites contemplation on issues of displacement, survival, and identity. Displacement is a deeply personal experience, and yet one that is implicitly collective.

The curators are students from the semester-long Department of Art workshop "Be the Curator: Curatorial Theory and Practice." Local art educators, curators, and artists helped guide the process of making a relevant and meaningful exhibition, which involved intensive group exploration of the value of artistic expression, how to establish a scope of artworks and objects that is inclusive and exclusive, and design an exhibition that is educational and engaging. 

Co-sponsored by the University Libraries, the Center for Holocaust And Genocide Studies, and the Department of Art.

Performance of the Musical Drama Broucci (Fireflies), based on the Czech folktale performed at the Terezin / WWII Jewish camp-ghetto of Theresienstadt