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In the same semester that the Chronicle of Higher Education described the study of comparative genocide as a "less-taught but urgently needed staple on university curricula," students at CMC have had the opportunity to study that very issue in a course that examines the causes and consequences in several cases, including the former Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Congo, and Sudan.
The course, Genocide & Mass Violence Since the Holocaust, is taught by Jerry Fowler, this year's William F. Podlich Distinguished Visitor and the first visiting scholar at The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights.
Fowler's presence on campus this fall funnels years of international research on genocide issues into the classroom. As the first staff director for the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Fowler guided the Museum's genocide prevention and response efforts, which involved finding ways for the non-partisan Museum to honor the memory of those who died in the Holocaust while becoming involved in efforts to deal with ongoing genocides and episodes of mass violence.
"What we've done over the course of the last seven years," says Fowler, "is find a way for the Museum to speak as a moral voice grounded in the memory of what happened 60 years ago. And with this voice we alert the nation and the world to threats of genocide—stimulating debates about situations such as Darfur, while not getting involved in the details of policy arguments."
Darfur has been a particular focus of Fowler's international work in genocide issues, and has since stimulated national and international debates about ongoing violence in the region. At the Holocaust Memorial Museum, he organized meetings that resulted in the creation of the first chapter of STAND, an umbrella organization of more than 600 high school and college chapters dedicated to putting an end to genocide, specifically the ongoing genocide in Darfur. In July 2004, Fowler and Ruth Messinger of American Jewish World Service organized the Darfur Emergency Summitmdash;a meeting that was the genesis of the Save Darfur Coalition: an alliance of more than 170 faith-based, advocacy, and humanitarian organizations.
The coalitions, says Fowler, have been instrumental in raising international awareness of violence in Darfur and elsewhere. For Fowler, the awareness is essential for building pressure for an effective response. "One of the lessons that I take out of studying these issues and working on Darfur," he says, "is that the level of response to genocide and mass violence by governments, including our own, is directly related to how much public outcry there is."
In recent years Fowler has traveled Sudan's neighbor, Chad, to collect refugee testimonies. His writings on Darfur have been published in both popular and academic publications. Last April, Fowler was one of eight people invited to meet with President Bush to discuss the Darfur crisis as well as possible responses.
Although nothing might seem further from holiday celebrations than matters of genocide, the matters of conscience brought forth in concern for suffering shed light on our common humanity.
"The essence of the holidays we celebrate at this time of year," says Fowler, "is concerned with messages of the nature of our humanity. One of the important developments that came from the Holocaust was a broad acceptance that massive attacks against humanity in one place are the concern and the problem of people everywhere.
"The perpetrators don't take holidays," says Fowler. "As we in the Western world especially turn inward and are focused on taking a break, unfortunately the situation in a place like Darfur doesn't follow that calendar."
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Jerry Fowler
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