PSYC 3275 & HRTS 3600:

Genocide

The Holocaust, the genocides in Turkey and Cambodia, the disappearances in Argentina, the death squad killings in El Salvador, the killing of the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the list goes on. Violence, torture, the mistreatment of human beings . . . . All of these raise questions about evil. This course examines the psychological, cultural, and societal roots of human cruelty, violence, and genocide. We examine the questions of what enables individuals collectively and individually to perpetrate evil/genocide and examine the impact of apathetic bystanders on human violence.

Course Objectives

  1. To examine the nature of evil and its differential impact on victims vs. perpetrators.

  2. To examine the differences between the terms genocide, democide, ethnocide, and other forms of mass violence.

  3. To become more knowledgeable concerning the interaction of psychological, sociological, cultural, and/or political roots of evil, human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide.

  4. To become familiar with a psychosocial theory of evil and the application of this theory to the perpetration of genocide and mass violence in Nazi Germany, Turkey, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda.

  5. To examine the nature of bystander behavior and the impact of bystander behavior on the perpetration of genocide.

  6. To examine the question of what can be done to prevent human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide.

  7. For students to be able to take all of the above information and apply it to a current or historical instance of individual and collective instance of human cruelty, mass violence, or genocide.

Course Information:

Click Here for Recommended Readings

Topics include: Genocide & Democide; The Holocaust; the Armenian genocide; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Burma; Cambodia; East Timor; Rwanda & Burundi; and other texts related to Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Click Here for Links

Links to Websites concerning: the Armenian Genocide; the Balkans and Bosnia; Burma; Cambodia; Croatia; East Timor; Genocide & Democide; the Herero genocide; Hindu genocide in Bangledesh; The Holocaust; Human Rights; Rwanda & Burundi; Sudan; and other links related to Holocaust and Genocide Studies

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