Light Genocide Studies Reading

If you’re looking for something to read forInternational Holocaust Remembrance Day, let me humbly suggest Adam Jones’ volume Evoking Genocide, which has won a 2010 Outstanding Academic Title Award by the American Library Association’s Choice Magazine. Here’s their review:

This compilation has a simple yet fascinating premise: ask leading human rights scholars and activists to reflect on the art and literature that most influenced them. The result –60 two-to-three page essays mediating on a wide variety of sources, from the essential (Elie Wiesel’s Night, 1960) to the unexpected (Star Trek)—is highly engaging and thoughtful. The beauty here is that these well-known intellectuals and activists are honestly writing about the things that move them, capture their imaginations, and propel them onward in their work. Reading the book is akin to talking to a favourite professor about why he or she chose a specific field of study. The essays, covering events ranging from genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas to the genocide in Darfur, are not traditionally academic, a fact that may make this book more accessible to students. An excellent starting place for those interested in developing classes on the art and literature of genocide. Jones includes a list of resources for further reading.

The credit goes, of course, to the editor Adam Jones, who conceived and shepherded this book into being, on top of countless other scholarly contributions to the subfield of genocide studies.

Anyone who would like a breakdown of my “unexpected” contribution on genocide and the Borg can go here.