The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar on:
Extremely Violent Societies:
A New Approach to Understanding Mass Violence
Thursday, 27 January 2011, 13.30-15.30
Danish Institute for International Studies
Main Auditorium
Strandgade 71, ground floor, 1401 Copenhagen K
Background
In his new book, Extremely Violent Societies:Mass Violence in the Twentieth-Century World (Cambridge, 2010), Christian Gerlach tackles the theme of mass violence from a comparative perspective. Ranging from Ottoman Armenia to Nazi- occupied Europe, from Indonesia to East Pakistan, he explores why, at particular times, these societies exploded into violence. He supplants a state- and ideology-centered model of genocide with a multi-causal approach that focuses on complex processes that enlist members of many social groups in producing these terrible outcomes. In his presentation, he suggests a new way to explain mass violence by concentrating on its participatory aspects, on the fact that often several groups are being targeted and not just one, and on the multitude of motives usually involved. The talk will illustrate the potential of this approach with a case study.
Christian Gerlach is Professor in History at the University of Bern. He has earlier worked as Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburg and the National University of Singapore and as Research Associate at the University of Freiburg. Among his publications are Extremely Violent Societies: Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century World (Cambridge, 2010) and Das letzte Kapitel: Realpolitik, Ideologie und der Mord an den ungarischen Juden 1944/45 (Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 2002).
Mogens Pelt is Associate Professor in International History at Saxo Institute, History Section at the University of Copenhagen. He has been Deputy Director at the Danish Institute at Athens and is a member of the working group of the Volkswagen Foundation-funded international network “Captive States, Divided Societies, Political Institutions of Southeastern Europe in Historical Comparative Perspective since 2005”. His publications include Tying Greece to the West: American, West-German, Greek Relations, 1945-1974 (Museum Tusculanum, 2006).
Programme
13.30-13.40 Introduction
Cecilie F. S. Banke, Senior Researcher, DIIS
13.40-14.30 Extremely Violent Societies: A New Approach to
Understanding Mass Violence
Christian Gerlach, Professor, University of Bern, Switzerland
14.30-14.45 Coffee Break
14.45-14.55 Commentator
Mogens Pelt, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
14.55- 15.30 Open Discussion
Chair: Robin May Schott, Senior Researcher, DIIS
Practical Information
The seminar will be held in English.
Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use below online registration form no later than Wednesday, 26 January 2011 at 12.00 noon. |
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