NERWHA Fall Symposium

SMITHFIELD, R.I. - Historians from around the world will convene at Bryant University Oct. 9-10 for a symposium focused on genocide in world history. The program begins with a keynote address and book-signing by Christopher Dodd, who served as a U.S. senator from Connecticut for 30 years and is co-author of Letters from Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice, which details the work of Thomas J. Dodd, lead American counsel at Nuremberg. The address and book-signing are free and open to the public.

Saturday, Oct. 10, features a full day of panel discussions that include presentations by scholars from England, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Nigeria, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United States. More than a dozen specialized topics will be explored during the symposium, including: Theories and Models of Genocide; Genocide and Colonialism; Holocaust Perpetrators and Victims; The Holocaust in Historical and Legal Perspective; Resistance, Rescue, and Resilience in Response to Genocide; and Can Genocides Be Prevented?

There is also a Saturday morning workshop for teachers, “Using Role-Immersion Games to Help Students Understand Issues of Genocide and Humanitarian Intervention.” The international scholars and historians include Bryant University Professor of Legal Studies Michael Bryant, Ph.D., J.D., one of the foremost authorities on the Holocaust and the law. His latest book, Eyewitness to Genocide: The Operation Reinhard Death Camp Trials, was honored with the U.S. National Section of L’Association Internationale de Droit Pénal 2014 Book of the Year Award. He is also the author of Confronting the “Good Death:” Nazi Euthanasia on Trial, and numerous articles on the postwar adjudication of Nazi-era crimes. Dr. Bryant's third book, A World History of War Crimes, will be published in the fall by Bloomsbury Press (London).

The Genocide in World History symposium commemorates the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps, and the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide. It is co-sponsored by the New England Regional World History Association, the Mid-Atlantic World History Association, and the Department of History and Social Sciences at Bryant University.