MCC News
Historian James Waller, Ph.D. Shares How Students, Community Can Help Prevent Genocide, Be Responsible Global Citizens (10/26/2018)
Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project hosts Kristallnacht program at MCC Monday, Nov. 5.Through his book “Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide” (Oxford University Press, 2016), James Waller, Ph.D. (pictured at right) reinforces his position that preventing genocide and mass atrocity is an “achievable goal, but only if we have the will to do so.” Recognized for his work on the psychology of human evil, intergroup relations, prejudice and genocide prevention, Waller will be the featured keynote speaker of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project’s 27th annual Kristallnacht program at Monroe Community College.
The event will be held 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5 in MCC’s Warshof Conference Center, R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center, 1000 East Henrietta Road, Rochester. The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required and available at www.monroecctickets.com. Parking available in Lot M.
Waller is Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and chair of that same department, at Keene State College (N.H.). He is the author of five books, most notably “Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing” (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2007) and “Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide.” In addition, Waller is the author of 28 articles in peer-reviewed professional journals, 20 chapters in edited books, and is a senior editor of two edited volumes currently in production. In the policymaking arena, Waller is also regularly involved, in his roles as director of academic programs with the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, and as the curriculum developer and lead instructor for the Raphael Lemkin Seminars for Genocide Prevention. These seminars, held on-site and in conjunction with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, introduce diplomats and government officials from around the world to issues of genocide warning and prevention.
Keene State College is home to one of the nation’s oldest Holocaust resource centers and offers the only undergraduate major in Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the United States.
Fellow scholars, like Benjamin Valentino of Dartmouth College and Bridget Conley-Zilkic of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, consider Waller’s most recent book, “Confronting Evil,” as the most comprehensive studies of the prevention of genocide yet written and a major contribution to genocide studies because it responds to the “most common question students pose: What can be done?”
The Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project was established in 1991 as MCC’s unique organization for telling the stories of the Holocaust and other genocides while transforming individuals to become advocates for human rights.
Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass”
In November 1938, mass frenzy broke out in Austria and Germany. Synagogues were destroyed and burned, Jewish people were assaulted, and Jewish-owned stores were shattered and looted. This was the first time that riots against the Jews, accompanied by mass detention, had been organized on such an extensive scale. Kristallnacht was the Nazis' first experience of large-scale, anti-Jewish violence. It opened the way for the eradication of the Jews' position in Germany (source: Yad Vashem).
Media Contact:
Rosanna Yule
Government and Community Relations
585-292-3024
ryule@monroecc.edu