Edited By Jeffrey S. Bachman, John Cox. The field of genocide studies has experienced extraordinary growth during the past two decades. It stands today as one of the most diverse and interdisciplinary in the social sciences and humanities. Likewise, the field’s anchoring case studies have proliferated, from an initial focus on the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and the…

By Jie-Hyun Lim. Translated by Megan Sungyoon. Nationalism today depends on the perception of victimhood. The historical memory of past suffering endows nationalist movements with political legitimacy and a sense of moral superiority. Koreans recall Japanese colonial atrocities, while Japan commemorates the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Israel sanctifies the Holocaust and Poland trumpets…

Edited By Sarah M. Cushman, Joanne Pettitt, Dominic Williams. This handbook examines Auschwitz-Birkenau as both a site and a symbol of Nazi genocide. Scholars from a range of disciplinary perspectives consider Auschwitz’s history by engaging with Holocaust historiography and its place in Holocaust memory and representation, illustrating their mutual influence. The chapters bring new insights to topics that other…

By Delia Duong Ba Wendel. In Rwanda’s Genocide Heritage, Delia Duong Ba Wendel contends with the forms of justice and sovereignty enacted through sites of violent memory. Drawing from oral histories and a visual archive of memory work after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, she explores the human rights and government priorities that preserved killing sites…

Edited by Bedross Der Matossian and Edita Gzoyan. While scholarship on the Armenian Genocide has expanded significantly in recent years, the history of the concentration camps in present-day Syria, where Ottoman authorities deported Armenians during the death marches, remains largely understudied. This is the first book to offer an in-depth and multifaceted examination of these…

By Yeşim Yaprak Yıldız. It is widely thought that confessions from perpetrators of state violence promote accountability, reconciliation, and justice. Performing Public Confessions offers a challenge to this view through a critical examination of perpetrators’ narratives, analyzing them as performances that shape public perceptions of state violence and responsibility. With a focus on Turkey, this book…

By Başak Can. Forensic Fantasies explores the role of medical documentation and evidence in uncovering human rights violations. Anthropologist Başak Can examines how progressive doctors, medical institutions, and state forces in Turkey use forensic methods to detect, erase, reveal, and transform violence exerted against populations deemed to be enemies of the state. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork…

By Olivera Simić. In 2001, Biljana Plavšić made history: she became the only female political leader ever prosecuted for mass atrocities. She was the one woman among 161 indictees at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia—and the first since Nuremberg to be convicted by an international court. Charged with genocide and crimes against humanity,…

Edited by Robert M. Ehrenreich, Jane E. Klinger, Gabriel H. Pizzorno, and Caroline Sturdy Colls. The vast majority of people throughout history have left few written traces. That is especially the case for those who were brutally forced from their homes, stripped of their possessions, and swiftly imprisoned, enslaved, or murdered. Objects of Atrocity: Material Culture and the Challenges of Difficult…

By Vladimir Solonari. Uniformed Murderers investigates the causes, logistics, motivations, and legal awareness of the Romanian servicemen―both military and gendarmerie―who massacred or otherwise caused the death of more than three thousand Jews, Roma, and others in 1941 and 1942. Vladimir Solonari addresses and revises the framework that Romanian decision makers largely followed in the footsteps of their…