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Zoryan Hosts 22 University Students to Study Genocide
from Planning to Prevention
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Deborah Hay
Toronto – The running of the twelfth annual Genocide
& Human Rights University Program (“GHRUP”) couldn’t have been timelier
considering the atrocities and human rights violations currently taking place
in Syria, Egypt, and several countries in the Middle East and Africa. This
year, 22 students came to Toronto from 10 countries to meet and study with ten
distinguished genocide scholars. Many of the students came from backgrounds
where gross violations of human rights and genocide are part of their national
or personal experience, such as Kurds, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Armenians, Jews,
Muslims, and Christians.
There were several students who work to provide aid to
affected communities, such as those of Guatemala and Sudan. Perhaps even more
remarkable was the number of students who do not have a direct connection, yet
are deeply motivated to understand human rights violations and genocide and how
to raise awareness to prevent them around the world.
The
Course Director, Prof. Joyce Apsel of New York University, noted, “Several
students who are teachers commented on how much they learned from watching the
pedagogy of different instructors, as well as from the course content. Other
students consulted me and other instructors about which directions and schools
to pursue for graduate education. They proved to be an outstanding group of
students, and it was a privilege to have two weeks in and out of the classroom
to exchange ideas and interests.”
Indeed,
the students brought many diverse experiences to the classroom. One student who
is a journalist by trade, described to the class, based on a personal visit to
North Korea, the importance of maintaining a critical perspective on
decades-old yet still ongoing human rights abuses there. Another student
presented the current and historical human rights abuses of disabled peoples
affected by policies of eugenics in the USA, a group she works with in her
field of Social Work and Disability Studies. Yet another brought the class to
tears by discussing her own family’s history of having suffered chemical
attacks in the Halabja massacre of March 16, 1988. The GHRUP allows students
the opportunity to voice these backgrounds, to analyze comparatively how
genocides unfold, their immediate and transgenerational effects on people, and
to explore how we can stop them.
It was
remarkable to see descendants of perpetrator and victim groups in the Armenian
Genocide—students of Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish background—find common
interests with each other, and within the academic environment of the program
and based on historical facts, explore issues of stereotypes, memory, denial
and reconciliation together and see each other through the prism of humanity.
One
student from Pakistan, currently a member of the UNAMID effort in Darfur,
Sudan, brought to the course the perspective and the dedication of those who
work to prevent genocide in the field.
This
year, a business student audited the course. At the end of the course this
student made a spontaneous and moving speech in which she said that the course
restored her faith in humanity. The GHRUP evokes a powerful sense of enthusiasm
and commitment from students and faculty alike, and makes them reflect on their
own lives and the lives of all others in the world. This student’s feeling of
connectedness to the students and the course was really a beacon of hope.
The
sentiments of all the students who attended the course are perhaps best
captured in their own words. Explaining their perception of the program’s
greatest strength, one student commented, “I think the GHRUP does an amazing
job of providing an incredibly comprehensive course in such a short period of
time. The quality of the scholars and students, and the incredible range of
experiences and backgrounds are unparalleled.” Another student wrote that “This
program is life- and career-changing. It focuses on the history of genocide,
the patterns of genocide, the denial and prevention of genocide.”
The Zoryan Institute and its subsidiary, the International
Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, is the first non-profit,
international center devoted to the research and documentation of contemporary
issues with a focus on Genocide, Diaspora and Armenia.
For more information please contact the Zoryan Institute
by email zoryan@zoryaninstitute.org or telephone 416-250-9807.
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