Sacramento State University (press release), CA
Sept 23 2004
Sacramento State hosts international genocide conference
Leading scholars, along with Holocaust and genocide survivors, will
examine some of the most horrific events of modern history at the
second International Conference on Genocide, Oct. 14-16 at California
State University, Sacramento.
The conference is particularly timely given the ongoing situation in
Sudan, which was recently labeled genocide by U.S. Secretary of State
Collin Powell. Sessions are free and open to the public, and will
take place in the University Union.
Presenters from around the world will share scholarship on events
including the Holocaust; genocides in Armenia, Burundi, the
Phillipines, Rwanda, and South Africa; the genocide of Native
Americans in California; and Japanese biological warfare in World War
II. More general topics will include the causes of genocide and
genocide denial.
What promises to be one of the most poignant sessions will be 1 p.m.,
Saturday, when genocide survivors and eyewitnesses will describe
their experiences.
The conference’s keynote speakers will be John Steiner, a Holocaust
concentration camp survivor and senior researcher at Sonoma State;
Henry R. Huttenbach, editor of the Journal of Genocide Research and
professor at the City University of New York; and Christian P.
Scherrer of the Hiroshima Peace Institute at Hiroshima City
University.
The first genocide conference at Sacramento State took place in 1998.
Proceedings were later published as Anatomy of Genocide:
State-Sponsored Mass-Killings in the 20th Century.
Like the first one, this conference is organized by Alexandre
Kimenyi, a Sacramento State ethnic studies professor who occasionally
teaches a course on genocide and the Holocaust. A native of Rwanda,
Kimenyi lost family members in that country’s 1994 genocide.
`After the Jewish Holocaust, the world said `Never again,’ ` Kimenyi
says. `But the whole 20th century was characterized by genocide.
There were at least four. The twenty-first century started also with
terrorism and genocide. And the world is debating whether the
massacres in Darfur constitute genocide before the international
community can intervene. Universities have a responsibility to remind
the world of this serious crime and to find solutions to eradicate
it.’
Also helping organize the conference are Boatamo Mosupyoe and Annette
Reed, both Sacramento State ethnic studies professors. Mosupyoe has
studied recent African migrants in the United States, and, like
Kimenyi, has a devastating personal experience. She lost family in
atrocities in South Africa, and later made her way to the United
States with the help of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Reed is director of
the Sacramento State Native American studies program and an expert on
the Tolowa people of Northwestern California.
The conference is free and open to the public, and all sessions will
be in the University Union. Tickets for the dinner and performance by
internationally known Rwandan singer Jean-Paul Samputu at 7 p.m.,
Saturday, Oct. 16 are $20.
More information is available by contacting Alexandre Kimenyi at
(916) 278-6802 or [email protected]. Kimenyi’s website has detailed
information on the conference –