On Monday, October 19, 2020 we released our first newsletter. We intend to release a monthly newsletter to keep you informed about what is happening at the Institute and ways to get involved. Please send us an email at igmap@binghamton.edu, if you would like to be added to our mailing list.
December 2020 Newsletter
November 2020 Newsletter
October 2020 Newsletter
October 2020
Announcing the First Cohort of Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellows in Atrocity Prevention!
We are very excited to share the news about the first cohort of Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellows in Atrocity Prevention for the 2020-21 academic year. This program builds upon the GMAP Curriculum Development Program, which we provided since 2018.
We received great applications and cannot wait to begin working with the selected group, both because of the new representation from the School of Management and the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science that this cohort brings to our network and because of the diversity of important topics about which these faculty teach and do research. They will provide an array of courses for students at the graduate and undergraduate levels and will help us delve deeper into some key aspects of prevention where we haven鈥檛 previously had the specialized expertise. These faculty members will join a growing cadre of faculty across 91社区 who are incorporating atrocity prevention into their teaching and, in some cases, into their research as well. We will now have members who have participated in this program from every college/school at the University that provides master鈥檚 level coursework.
They will participate as a group in some synchronous meetings/workshops with us and past participants throughout the year, and thanks to our Dr. Kerry Whigham鈥檚, assistant professor of genocide and mass atrocity prevention, work they will individually complete self-paced online modules in the spring. By next year, we intend to have this program ready to open up to the broader SUNY community in the form of micro-credentialing.
Each year we have found the variety of disciplines represented by the participants greatly enriches the discussions of both atrocity prevention and pedagogy, and we are looking forward to a process of mutual learning again this year. This year the group will consist of the following individuals (listed alphabetically):
- Jeremy Blackburn, Computer Science, Watson
- Birgit Brander Rasmussen, English, Harpur
- Chanqing Cheng, SSIE, Watson
- Zeynep Ertem, ISE 鈥 Engineering, Watson
- Jenny Gordon, TLEL, CCPA
- Kim Jaussi, SOM
- Bryan Kirschen, Romance Languages, Harpur
- Matt McConn, TLEL, CCPA
- Saeideh Mirghorbani, SOM
Fall 2020 Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise
In 2019, we hosted the first Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise at 91社区 University and this year we are bringing the event back to campus. Although we cannot be in person physically, we look forward to holding the event virtually. We know that this is very different that last semester's simulation, but we look forward to making it just as rewarding.
The simulation will provide both a practical atrocity intervention learning experience and serve as a laboratory for decision-making and conflict analysis. Students are divided into six groups, with each group acting as a different international actor in the simulated conflict. Over the course of six rounds of the simulation exercise, students assess information in real time through life-like materials, articulate a series of multidisciplinary policies and programs aimed at trying to nudge the country away from conflict and deal with the immediate and longer-term aftermath of the conflict. Between each round of play, all participants meet together in the main Zoom room for a shared assessment. Each team will have two advisors present for all rounds. Advisors will be working with groups as they digest new information, revise their risk assessments and conflict mapping, revisit their policy options and preferences, and decide whether to share information with other teams.
Learn more about the Fall 2020 Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise on that part of our website.
I-GMAP Webinar: The US Southern Border as an Atrocity Prevention Site
On Wednesday, October 14 from 3:00pm to 4:30pm, we will hold our first webinar to discuss the US Southern Border as an Atrocity Prevention Site.
American law and politics have combined with the plight of central and south American refugees to transform the US-Mexico border into a lethal zone. Thousands of refugees have died in attempts to cross into American territory; thousands more have been arrested, detained, separated from their children, and in many instances imprisoned in state and federal facilities under conditions that may constitute violations of international law. American immigration and criminal law have effectively combined to form a distinctly new and lethal form of "crimmigration law," one that sees refugees primarily as criminals deserving of imprisonment.
Has America's southern border become an atrocity prevention site? This webinar of distinguished legal specialists and border activists explores this and related questions: how do existing federal policies and agencies change when we see them through an "atrocity prevention lens?" What mechanisms and approaches for atrocity prevention familiar from other contexts are valuable transferred to the US southern border? How can protection of and advocacy for refugees draw on the tools of atrocity prevention in their work?
Panelists:
, Senior U.S. Advocate, Refugees International
Yael Schacher is senior U.S. advocate at Refugees International in Washington D.C., where she focuses on asylum, refugee admissions, temporary protected status, and humanitarian visas. Most of her recent reports for Refugees International have focused on U.S. border policies that put asylum seekers at risk of harm. Prior to joining Refugees International, Yael worked on her forthcoming book about the history of asylum in the United States as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Before that she spent several years teaching about immigration at the University of Connecticut and volunteering at the legal services office of the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants. She has an M.A. in History and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Harvard University.
Mar铆a Ang茅lica Montesinos, Program Coordinator,
Mar铆a Ang茅lica Montesinos is a Program Coordinator at Asylum Access, a nonprofit that provides life-changing legal services to thousands of refugees per year. With 7 years of experience as a litigator in civil and family law, Mar铆a is responsible for overseeing the local offices in the north and south of Mexico as well as overseeing the Department of Strategic Litigation.
, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, George Mason University
Shannon Fyfe is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at George Mason University, where she is also a Fellow in the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, and an Adjunct Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School. She holds both a Ph.D. in philosophy and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University. Her main research interests are in legal philosophy, ethics, and political philosophy, with a particular focus on mass violence and international conflict.
, Professor of Law, University of Denver
C茅sar Cuauht茅moc Garc铆a Hern谩ndez is a professor of law at the University of Denver and author, most recently, of . He has published opinion articles in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian, among others. A Fulbright Scholar Award recipient, he is also of counsel at Garc铆a & Garc铆a Attorneys at Law, PLLC.
Moderator: Max Pensky, Co-Director, Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, 91社区
September 2020
I-GMAP in the News! "This 鈥楬ero Rat鈥 Is Saving Cambodia, One Landmine at a Time" by VICE World News
Our very own Charles E. Scheidt Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Darcie DeAngelo was interviewed for a VICE World News story!The news article on Magawa, the landmine clearing rat, mentions Darcie's interesting research, which explores how the use of rats to clear ordinance in Cambodia is changing the culture of mine clearance.As quoted in the article, Darcie says, 鈥淢agawa鈥檚 story touches us and shows us that even the littlest of creatures can work towards peace.鈥
Dr. Jenny Escobar Joins Antiracist Conversation Online
On September 10, 2020, our Charles E. Scheidt Postdoctoral Fellow, Jenny Escobar, participates in an intercultural and multigenerational dialogue on antiracism sponsored by Generaciones de Acci贸n and Fundaci贸n Guagua.
The title of the event is "Anti-racist Journey: A series of Intercultural and Multigenerational Dialogues" (translated from Spanish, event is in Spanish only).
In Dr. Escobar's words, "in this series of Antiracist Dialogues for the Latinx, Latin American Spanish speaking community, we will be examining the ongoing violence against the Black community in Latin America and US, highlight the implications of this violence for the diverse racialized groups that exist within Latinx/ Latin America, and continue to develop a vision of Anti-racism practices and commitments that centers the leadership of Afro-Latinx/Latin American diaspora. I will be speaking on how we can use memory and transformative justice practices to help us embody an Antiracist vision. I will be accompanied by colleague and friend, Edgardo Mosquera Forero who is co-founder of Fundacion Guagua, an organization leading the Movement for Memory for survivors of state violence in Cali, Colombia; Janet Quezada, a Afro-Dominican writer and organizer who will be sharing about her journey creating a vision for the Black, Queer, Immigrant community in the United States, and Patricia Veliz who is the co-founder of Generaciones en Accion, an intergenerational organization providing education for the immigrant community in LA."
One of I-GMAP's First Charles E. Scheidt Postdoctoral Fellows Presents at Virtual Conference in Japan
On a early September 1st morning in Kobe, one of this year's two Charles E. Scheidt Postdoctoral Fellows, Dr. Darcie DeAngelo virtually presented her paper, "Peace, Karma, Food: Montage as ethnography in a Cambodian minefield," at the Association for Asian Studies. Given the time zone difference, her presentation was at 8:45PM EDT, Monday, August 31st. Her presentation was a part of a broader panel entitled, "." The abstract from the conference states:
Millions of landmines lie buried in Cambodia. In the minefield, potential violence infuses stable ground and human steps with risk. A walker can never tell whither or whether an explosive will detonate. When the ground has been rendered unstable, human desires for development are clarified. Animals represent certain desires for food, karma, and peace. To attend to ecological entanglements even in anthropocentric institutions, Peace, Karma, Food is a multiscreen exhibition with three videos that shift the point of view from human to animal for animal-human relationships related to important aspects of human life: farming, faith, and violence. The title refers to the human uses of the animals projected. The project plays at the boundary between anthropology and art, juxtaposing moments from Cambodian minefields. We see a cow in the small farm of a man who lives in a heavily landmine-contaminated village. We watch a bird being released for good karma. We follow a landmine detection rat detect explosives. The montage illuminates how religion, agriculture, and minefields are more ecologically entangled than we imagine. A reading will accompany this montage to further layer it. The reading discusses montage as a methodological framework for ethnography. While in the field, montage allowed unexpected relationships to emerge. The paper draws from juxtapositions of multiple fieldwork materials from visuals, narratives, and sensorial sources (such as audio and touch). I focus on exemplary moments of montage from the field in the reading, allowing the senses to bridge across these juxtapositions, revealing unnoticed parallels and exciting connections.
July 2020
Co-Director Nadia Rubaii Presents on University of Cambridge Panel, 鈥淚ndigenous Peoples & the Responsibility to Protect鈥
Co-Director, Prof. Nadia Rubaii & Brazilian Federal Prosecutor Julio Araujo Pen Four New Articles on the Threat of COVID19 Disproportionately Affecting Indigenous Peoples of Brazil
Professor Rubaii and a Brazilian colleague wrote a few articles for The Conversation about the ongoing threats against the indigenous peoples in Brazil. The articles were orginally published in English in the U.S. edition of The Conversation and then they were translated to Spanish and published in the Spain edition. All of them emphasize the potential for COVID to accelerate mass atrocities and potential genocide already underway for the Indigenous peoples in Brazil.
The original articles coincided with Bolsonaro鈥檚 positive test and reported on a filing of a case in Brazil鈥檚 Supreme Court.
The updated versions reflect the surprisingly quick and strong ruling from a judge on Brazil鈥檚 Supreme Court that was issued a day after the first article was released. This is a small bit of positive news in an otherwise very troubling situation.
June 2020
Incoming Assistant Professor of GMAP, Dr. Kerry Whigham Speaks on University of Cambridge Panel
NGOs and civil society actors around the world play an important role in implementing the promise of Responsibility to Protect. Whether advocating for accountability for atrocity crimes, lobbying national governments, promoting awareness of the principles of sovereignty as responsibility, or preserving the memory of victims, NGOs have been a key component of the vibrant civil society support for R2P. So given the particularly challenging environment that NGOs find themselves in during the pandemic and associated political developments, how can they adapt to these new circumstances? And what happens to the Responsibility to Protect if NGOs are less able to operate? What might NGOs do to ensure they are able to continue fulfilling this role? And what would be the consequences for suffering populations if the economic and political climate for humanitarian NGOs deteriorates further?
-From the .
Statement from I-GMAP Co-Directors
June 4, 2020. For immediate release.
The Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention stands in solidarity with demonstrators around the world as they peacefully protest the murder of George Floyd by an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department - just the latest crime committed by American police officers against individuals and communities of color.
Read the full statement on our website
Co-Director Nadia Rubaii Joins Panel for Launch of New Risk Monitoring System in Colombia
On Thursday, June 4th, Professor Rubaii, co-director of I-GMAP, joined a panel of experts to discuss different aspects of the monitoring system and the relevance of this system as a prevention tool. This panel was hosted by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) and Javeriana University in Colombia.
She joined others to bring an international perspective on monitoring systems and lessons from other countries. Her panel included Diego Garc铆a-Say谩n, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and former judge on the Interamerican Court of Human Rights, Andrei G贸mez Su谩rez, professor at the Institute of the Americas at University College London (UCL), and Eugenia Carbone, director of the Latin American Program at the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities and technical secretariat of the Latin American Network for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention.
Congratulations to I-GMAP Graduate Assistant, Dr. Rania Said!
I-GMAP's graduate assistant, Rania Said, has graduated with her Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature degree, at the conclusion of this academic year. We wish her the best of luck in the next chapter in her journey at the University of Massachusetts Boston where she will be a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
Read her Commencement 2020 profile on BingU News
May 2020
AIPG to Integrate its National Mechanisms Project into New I-GMAP Mechanisms of Atrocity Prevention Policy Paper Series
I-GMAP and the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities (AIPG) are proud to announce an special collaboration in the field of atrocity prevention. Read our full joint announcement on our website
I-GMAP urges the Brazilian National Congress to vote "NO" on MP 910
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic destroying communities and unsettling economic systems around the world, the administration of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil is attempting to fast track official approval of illegal land grabbing and deforestation of public lands, including indigenous peoples' territories in the Amazon region and throughout Brazil.
In December 2019, Bolsonaro signed a Provisional Measure, known as MP 910, to allow individuals who illegally logged or squatted on federally protected lands to purchase them at reduced prices. This week, the Brazilian National Congress is moving to make the Provisional Measure law, thus cementing this illegal takeover of protected land and furthering the atrocities that are destroying the lands, cultures and lives of Brazil鈥檚 indigenous peoples.
I-GMAP stands firmly with our atrocity prevention colleagues in Brazil and indigenous peoples around the world who face destruction of their ways of life and illegal appropriation of protected public lands. We call on the Brazilian National Congress to vote "NO" on MP 910.
I-GMAP Works with the Federal Prosecution Service in Brazil in Support of Indigenous Peoples' Rights
Staff at I-GMAP are collaborating with the Brazilian Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) on a plan to combat hate speech within the country, specifically targeting members of the indigenous communities. Recent comments against the indigenous peoples of Brazil by President Jair Bolsonaro caused legal action against him and his government by the MPF. The indigenous community of the Waimiri Atroari has achieved a legal victory whereby the government must publish the community's response to this hate speech.
Assistant director Stephen Capobianco has worked with Federal Prosecutor Julio Jose Araujo Junior in translating a recent response by the Director of the ACWA - Associa莽茫o Comunidade Waimiri Atroari (Waimiri Atroari Community Association).
April 2020
Co-Director Nadia Rubaii Presents at the Women, Peace and Security Conference
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the three-day Women, Peace and Security Conference
at 91社区 went online to a Zoom format. Our colleagues at 91社区
University's Human Rights Institute and the Ellyn Uram Kaschak Institute for Social
Justice for Women and Girls sponsored the Women, Peace and Security Conference, along
with partners at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (Sheffield Hallam
University) and Women鈥檚 International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Academic
Network.
On Friday, April 24th, our Co-Director, Prof. Nadia Rubaii presented on 鈥淪tate 鈥楴ervousness鈥
as a Continued Threat to Indigenous Women鈥檚 Security鈥 on a panel regarding Violence
Against Indigenous Women. Check out the program on HRI's website.
February 2020
Post-doctoral Research and Teaching Fellow, Dr. Kerry Whigham Speaks at Kupferberg Holocaust Center
Given that conflict history is one of the key predictors for atrocity violence, dealing with a history of past violence plays an essential role in any comprehensive atrocity prevention strategy.
I-GMAP's current post-doctoral research and teaching fellow, Dr. Kerry Whigham gives
a talk at the Kupferberg Holocaust Center (KHC) at Queensborough Community College
(City University of New York) on February 18.
He joined Todd Fine, president of the Washington Street Advocacy Group, for an event on "Memorialization and Memory" as part of KHC/NEH 2019-2020 Colloquium: Authoritarianism on the Continuum. For more information about, .
Practitioner-in-Residence, Andrew Boyle from the Brennan Center Spends a Week at 91社区 University
