Past MVHR (formally HGMV) Series
Fall 2020
September 17
Brooke Chambers, Sociology
"Broadening the Bounds of Ritual Space: Peripheral Commemoration and the Case of Contemporary Rwanda"
October 15
Šišókaduta, American Indian Studies
"Dakota Language History & Revitalization"
October 29
Berkant Caglar, Anthropology
"Lingering on Death: Post-Genocidal Turkey, Haunting and the Funeral of Osep Minasoglu"
Ellen Engseth, Curator, Immigration History Research Center Archives and Head, Migration and Social Services Collections
"Exploring the Andersen Library Archives"
December 3
Noah Goodwin, French; Jillian LaBranche, Sociology; Nikoleta Sremac, Sociology; John Vseteka, History (Michigan State)
"The Politics of Numbers in Genocide Studies and Memory Debates"
2018-2019
September 13
Welcome and Planning Session with pizza, funding, and professional development opportunities
September 20
Exhibit tour and talk at the Minneapolis Institute of Art with artist Rowan Pope to discuss his work relating to genocide as part of The Mn Twins exhibit
October 4
Moritz W. Meutzner, German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch
“Literary Criticism between Jewish Exile and Postcolonial History: How to read Erich Auerbach's Mimesis (Istanbul, 1942-45)?”
October 11
Hasan Hasanović, survivor of the Srebrenica genocide and Curator at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Centre
Presented by the Institute for Global Studies
October 18
Héctor Nicolás Ramos Flores, Spanish & Portuguese; J. Wren Supak, Master in Human Rights
“The Nexus of Black Memory: The Multilayered and Historical Traumas in Afro-Caribbean Diasporic Subjects” and “From Advocacy to Reconciliation: Theatre in Post-conflict Colombia”
October 29
Esther Htu San, AP correspondent, & Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN America’s Free Expression at Risk Programs
Scallen Lecture, “Principled Voices” on the role of a free press in Myanmar
Presented by the Human Rights Program
November 1-2
"Reparations, Repatriation, and Redress" symposium on addressing foundational wrongs in the US
Presented by the RIGS Initiative
November 8
Dan Reynolds, author and professor, German, Grinnell College
"Postcards from Auschwitz: Tourism and Holocaust Remembrance" book talk and lunch with graduate students, followed by talk and reception in the evening
Presented by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
November 15
Kathryn Huether, Musicology
“Did you Notice the Butterflies?: Behind the Headphones, Muted Memorializing and Curated Soundscapes at Treblinka”
Chris Levesque, Sociology
“Monuments of Shame: Exploring Far-right Political Discourse in Charlottesville and Berlin”
December 6
Maria Mendez Gutierrez, Political Science
"'We are Perceived as Weak but We Kill like Men’: Reframing the intersections between women and gang violence in Central America”
George Dalbo, Social Studies Education
“‘Why Don’t We Talk About Rape?’: Teaching About Sexualized Violence in War and Genocide”
February 21
Ellen Engseth, Curator, Immigration History Research Center Archives and Head, Migration and Social Services Collections and Ryan Bean, Archivist with the Kautz Family YMCA Archives
"Exploring the Andersen Library Archives"
March 7
Maria Sanchez, Department of Political Science
"Regional Human Rights Courts as Agents and Arbiters of Transitional Justice: Comparing the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights"
March 28
Jillian LaBranche, Department of Sociology
"Genocide, Social Movements, and the Politics of Naming"
April 1
2019 Ohanessian Lecture by Armen T. Marsoobian, Professor of Philosophy, Southern Connecticut State University
"Presencing an Absence: Accountability and Memory in the Aftermath of the Armenian Genocide."
Presented by the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair.
April 18
Angela Mundis, Department of Geography & Planning (St. Cloud State University)
"'Squaw' in the American Landscape: Towards an Understanding of Emotional Geography”
Jazmine Contreras, Department of History
“European Memory Processes and Dutch Identity: Commemorating the Second World War and Holocaust"
April 23
Jean-Pierre Karegeye, Visiting Scholar, Dickinson College
"Rwanda. Remembering Genocide with Resilience: the Voices of Women Survivors" talk and lunch with graduate students
Presented by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, made possible by the Wexler Special Events fund for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
May 2
Ángela Castro, Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies
"Genealogical Palimpsest: Archive of the XIX Colombian Marronage in Adelaida Ochoa’s La hoguera lame mi piel con cariño de perro"
Brooke Chambers, Department of Sociology
"Memory and Identity in Contemporary Rwanda: Reinforcing and Renegotiating Knowledge of Genocide Across Time"
2017-2018
September 14
Welcome Gathering with pizza and funding opportunities
September 28
Maria Jesus Fernandez, Department of Modern Philology, UMN Visiting Scholar, University of Alcala (Spain)
“The Echoes of The Secret Annex in Castilian Spanish: Challenge and Exploitation of the American Mythification of Anne Frank”
October 5
Haley Konitshek, Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies; Suzy McElrath, Department of Sociology
“Fue el estado genocida, classista, y patriarcal: Making Sense of State Violence in Post-War Guatemala” and “Tracing National Patterns in the Globalization of Genocide Law”
October 26
Jodi Elowitz, Director of Education, Holocaust & Humanity Center (Ohio)
Genocide Education Training Session: Teaching about right-wing extremism
November 1-3
“Truth, Trials, and Memory: Transitional Justice in El Salvador and Guatemala” international symposium
Organized by Human Rights Program
November 16
Nir Rotem, Department of Sociology
“Carved in Stone: Forging Memory into Space One Stolpersteine at a Time"
December 7
Brooke Chambers and Miray Philips, Department of Sociology
“Difficult Fieldwork”
February 1
George Dalbo, Department of Curriculum and Instruction; Brooke Chambers, Department of Sociology
"The Holocaust as Metaphor: Trends in Genocide and Anti-Bullying Education in K-12 Classrooms" and "Generations & Memory in Contemporary Rwanda"
February 8
Collin Diver, Department of Spanish & Portuguese; Emma Jasnoch, Department of Spanish & Portuguese
"Feixisme! Critical Discourse Analysis of 'Fascism' by Left-Wing Nationalist Parties of Catalonia" and "Memory & Transitional Justice in Post-Armed Conflict in Peruvian Cinema"
February 22
Carlo Tognato, National University of Colombia
Narrating the ‘Righteous in the Colombian Armed Conflict’: A civil pedagogy of solidarity for highly polarized and deeply divided societies
March 1
Agnes Schaffauser, Department of French & Italian; Emily Mitamura, Department of Political Science
"Filmmaker René Vautier, ‘soixante-huitard avant l’heure:’ A study of the First Anti-Colonialist Documentary, Afrique 50" and "Haunting the Dead: Thanatourism and the Coloniality of Memorialization in Cambodia"
April 5
Yagmur Karakaya, Department of Sociology; Jazmine Contreras, Department of History
"The Conquest of Hearts: Neo-Ottomanist Nostalgia and Affect in 'Nationalism as Practice'" and "'We were all in the resistance': The Politics of Dutch WWII Memorial Culture"
April 19
Paula Cueller, Department of History; Meyer Weinshel, Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch
"Press Representations and the Search for the Disappeared in Mexico" and "Decentering Kafka’s Trial: A Case for Postwar Yiddish Translation"
May 1
Martha Stroud, USC Shoah Foundation
The USC Visual History Archive of Genocide Survivor Testimonies: A Tool for Research, Teaching and Genocide Awareness Outreach
2016-2017
September 15
Welcome and Planning Session
September 21-23
“Local Action in Response to Migration” third annual international conference
Organized by the Human Rights Program, the Local Action in Response to Migration Network, and Hispanic Issues Online.
October 6
Yagmur Karakaya, Department of Sociology (UMN)
“Nostalgia as an Analytical Tool Applied to Turkey”
October 13
Nico Ramos Flores, Department of Spanish & Portuguese (UMN)
“Memory and Trauma in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones (1998): The Limits of Memory Theory on African Diasporic Subjects”
October 20
Professor Catherine Guisan, Department of Political Science (UMN)
“Beyond Traumatic Memory: ‘Lost Treasures’ of Russian Politics”
October 26
Professor Carlos Pabon, University of Puerto Rico
“Can the Story Be Told? History, Memory and Fiction in the Representation of Extreme Violence in Latin America”
Organized by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, cosponsored by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the Department of History.
November 10
Wahutu Siguru, Department of Sociology (UMN)
"Constructing News on Mass Atrocity: Darfur in Africa's Press"
November 22
Miray Phillips, Department of Sociology (UMN)
“Coptic Egyptians: Violence, Collective Memory and Identity”
December 8
Courtney Gildersleeve, Department of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature (UMN)
"The Peasant Novel and the Imprisoned Writer: Haitian Letters During the U.S. Occupation, 1915-1934"
January 26
Welcome Gathering and International Holocaust Remembrance Day
February 2
Edmon Marukyan, Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
Principled Voices: "Fighting Corruption and Advocating for Human Rights in Armenia"
Organized by the Human Rights Program, cosponsored by CHGS, the College of Liberal Arts, the Institute of Global Studies, and the Arsham and Ohanessian Chair.
February 16
Erma Nezirevic, Department of Spanish & Portuguese
"The Cost of Hospitality in Lunes en la Calle Slova by Erika Bornay"
March 1
Sonia Nazario, author of Enrique’s Journey
"Refugees at our Border"
Organized by the Human Rights Program, cosponsored by CHGS, the College of Liberal Arts, the Institute of Global Studies, and the Arsham and Ohanessian Chair.
March 2
Agnes Schaffauser, Department of French & Italian
"The Role of Righteous Muslims in France or The Free Men by Ismaël Ferroukhi"
March 30
Brooke Chambers, Department of Sociology; Emily Mitamura, Department of Political Science; Brooke Chambers, Department of Sociology; and Brienna Watters, Department of Sociology
"Commemoration and Cultural Trauma: Reconciliatory Narratives in Contemporary Rwanda" and "'Final Solution' to 'Never Again': Experiencing Empathy through Digital and Non-Digital Games"
April 20
Serge Avedikian, film director
Screening of "Nous avons bu la même eau" ("We Drank the Same Water"), a film about the Armenian Genocide, and Q&A with film director
Organized by CHGS and the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair.
May 4
Michael Soto, Department of Sociology
"The Reintegration of Ex-Combatants"
2015-2016
September 9
Welcome and Workshop Planning Meeting
September 24
Walter Manoschek, University of Vienna
“If that's True, then I'm a Murderer!” (2012) Film screening and discussion with film director on Nazi perpetrator guilt, repression and denial
September 30
Joe Eggers, Liberal Studies (UMN)
“What's in a name? Exploring How We Define Genocide from Lemkin to International Law”
October 7
Deepika Udagama, University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka) on Human Rights Law
October 14
Daniel Blaufuks, artist
The Creation of Holocaust Memory in Media
October 21
Lou Ureneck, Boston University
“The Great Fire at Smyrna and the genocide of the Ottoman Greek and Armenian population”
October 28
Sam Grey, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Sociology (UMN)
“Memory, Affect, and Retributivism after Genocide: Resistance to Forgiveness-Reconciliation in Dakota Homeland”
November 4
Wahutu Siguru, Sociology (UMN)
“What African Media? Rethinking research on representations of atrocities in Africa by Africa's Press”
November 18
Adam Muller, University of Manitoba
“Embodying Empathy: Canadian Settler-Colonial Genocide and the Making of a Virtual Indian Residential School”
December 2
Ofelia Ferrán, Spanish & Portuguese, and Lisa Hilbink, Political Science (UMN)
“Legacies of Violence in Contemporary Spain: Exhuming the Past, Understanding the Present”
December 9
Maria Hofmann, German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch (UMN)
"Recent Genocide Documentaries between Return and Respite of Trauma"
January 28
Welcome and semester planning; Meet the Archivists and visit the library archives
February 11
Rita Kompelmakher, Department of Theater Arts & Dance
“Staying Alive: Human Rights and the Performance of Life Support in Post-Soviet Belarusian Theater”
February 25
Ofelia Ferrán, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, and Lisa Hilbink, Political Science
“Legacies of Violence in Contemporary Spain: Exhuming the Past, Understanding the Present”
March 10
Paula Cuellar, Department of History
"Scorched Earth Operations in El Salvador as Genocidal Practices."
March 24
Heider Tun, Department of History
“Writing human rights from the bottom up: the case of the Salvadoran Co-Madres (1977-1992)”
April 21
María José Méndez Gutiérrez, Department of Political Science
“The soundtrack of war: ‘Narcocorridos’ and drug war violence in Latin America”
April 28
Courtney Gildersleeve, Department of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature; and Adey Almohsen, Department of History
“Unpacking Narratives” Reading / Discussion Group Meeting
May 5
Sidi N'Diaye, Research Fellow, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
“The Role of Historical Hate Representations in the Murder of Neighbors in Rwanda (1994) and Poland (World War II)”
2014-2015
October 2
Barbara Frey, Director Human Rights Program
"Uneven Ground: Asymmetries of Power in Human Rights Advocacy in Mexico"
October 12
Angela Carter, Department of Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies
“Re/Imagining PTSD: Toward a Cripistemology of Trauma”
October 30
Satty Flaherty-Echeverría, Department of Spanish & Portuguese
“Articulating Afrocentric Thought: Discourses on the Margins”
November 13
Patrick McNamara, Professor, Department of History
December 5
Paula Cuellar Cuellar, Department of History and CHGS Badzin Fellow
“Genocide in El Salvador: Where Ethnicity and Politics Collided”
February 5
Amber Michel, Liberal Studies
"American Islamic Organizations: Narrative Responses to Counterterrorism Initiatives"
February 12
Group Discussion on Images of Violence (Reading: Judith Butler, "Photography, War, Outrage")
February 26
Erma Nezirevic, Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies
"Spain Interrupted: Examining Spanish Representations of Violence in the Former Yugoslavia"
March 12
Orry Klainman, Department of History
"Jewish DP Immigration Desires after World War II"
March 26
Jazmine Contreras, Department of History
"An Upheaval of Memory: The Collision of Dutch Resistance Literature and National History"
April 3
Amy Cosmini, Department of Spanish & Portuguese
"Truths Produced and Sold: Latin American Media as a Transitional Justice Memory Merchandiser"
April 16
Yagmur Karakaya and Alejandro Baer, Department of Sociology
"Remembering to Forget? Holocaust Commemoration in Turkey and Spain"
May 7
Ore Koren and Holly Dunn, Department of Political Science
"Exploring the Alternatives: The Role of Customary Justice Mechanisms in Post-Conflict Contexts"
2013-2014
September 19
Sandra Gómez Santamaría, visiting scholar from Colombia
“Uses of transitional justice discourse in Colombia: the cases of “Justice and Peace" Law and “Legal framework for Peace”
October 4
Courtney Gildersleeve, Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature
“Poetry, Damaged Life and One Poem: By Agha Shahid Ali
October 31
Wahutu j. Siguru, Badzin Fellow CHGS, Department of Sociology
“The Politics of Representation: Genocide, Mass Violence and Atrocities in the Media.”
December 12
Paula Cuellar Cuellar, Department of History and Human Rights Program.
“Punishing genocide through trials: a viable option in the aftermath of systematic and widespread violence?”
February 13
Verena Stern, Research Fellow, Center for Austrian Studies
"Grievable Lives": Dealing with Dimensions of (Mass) Violence in Somali Transnational Migration"
March 13
Carla Manzoni, Department of Spanish & Portuguese
"Argentina’s Collages of Memory: Aesthetic heritage in post-dictatorial film Los rubios (2003)"
May 1
Marisol Soto, Department of Spanish & Portuguese
"Visual Interstices of Rhetoric, Memory, and Trauma in the Documentaries Spoils of War and The Lost Children of Franco."
2012-2013
October 25
Megan Corbin
“Haunted Objects: Spectral Testimony in the Latin American PostDictatorship”
November 16
Murat Altun
“Kalandar Winter Festival: Xenophobia and the Politics of Memory in Northeastern Turkey”
November 29
Matti Jutila
“Ideology of Racial Extermination? Representations of Marxist Ethnopolitics in The Soviet Story”
December 14
Jaime Ginzburg
“Authoritarianism, Violence and Melancholy”
January 25
Hollie Nyseth Brehm
“Disaggregating the Rwandan Genocide”
February 7
Shannon Golden
“International Law in Local Context: The ICC in Northern Uganda”
March 1
Corbin Treacy
“Aesthetics and Aftermath: Algeria 1962-2012”
March 14
Whitney Taylor
“Effectiveness and the ICTY”
March 29
Erma Nezirevic
ldquo; Mobile Memories: Collective Memory of Mass Violence in Spain and the (ex) Yugoslavia”
April 11
Matthias Falter
“‘Antifascist Consensus’ & the ‘Club of Political Correctness’: Addressing National Socialism in Austrian Parliamentary Debates on Right-wing Extremism”
April 25
Hiromi Mizuno
“When Crimes Cannot Be Punished: the Comfort Women Issue and International Human Rights Law”
May 9
Eric Harkleroad
“Warfare and Society: Archaeology's Contribution to the Discussion”