General provisions

The Hugo Valentin Centrum, Uppsala Univeristy, is responsibile for the course.

Entry requirements

120 credits including 90 credits in a subject in the humanities or the social sciences. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

After the completed course the student will be able to:

• Describe and critically analyse the most important cases of genocide and mass killing from the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, with particular focus on de-colonisation and its impact, as well as the effects of globalisation and the democratisation processes that followed upon the fall of communism
• Acquire knowledge about the state of research in the field and apply such information on empirical and theoretical analyses
• Discuss and analyse different cases of mass killing, taking into account specific historical, political, social and cultural aspects
• Problematise and discuss the diversity and spread of the phenomenon of genocide and mass political violence
• Understand and explain important theoretical concepts and themes of relevance for the study of genocide and other forms of mass violence, including gender, human rights, transitional justice and international intervention
• Through independent reflection compare different cases of mass violence through structured comparative methods
• Discuss and display an ability to independently analyse the terms research themes that dominate the filed of Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Content

The genocide in Rwanda and the "ethnic cleansing" in former Yugoslavia at the end of the twentieth century came as a shock for many western intellectuals, who gradually began to understand that these and other similar events had their roots in a failed transition from colonial and autochratic forms of government to democracy in the context of incomplete state and nation-building processes. It was also clear that the mass killings differed substantially when it came to perpetrator goals, the character of violence, the level of systematics and death tolls, which lead to an increased interest for a better understanding of the political, economic, social and cultural contexts in which violence happened. The course will give students a deepened understanding of several cases of genocide and mass killing during the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Special attention is paid to de-colonisation and its effects, as well as on the importance of globalisation and the democratisation processes that followed upon the fall of communism. Students will thus gain deepened knowledge about several research topics of central importance in order to understand the character of genocidal violence, as well as its impact on affected societies. These include the effect of different cultural, historical, political, ideological, gender and other identity-related aspects, as well as recent trends in the development of democratisation, human rights, transitional justice and international intervention.

Instruction

The course will consist of seminars.

Assessment

Assessment will be based upon written and oral assignments. Students that have missed a small number of mandatory assignments may complete them by the end of the term at the latest. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.