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MONTCLAIR, NJ - A symposium on "Confronting the Threat of Genocide" will be held at Montclair State University's Student Center Ballrooms Tuesday, April 5, from 1 to 4 p.m. The symposium, sponsored by the University's Departments of Anthropology and History and the Institute for the Humanities, is free and open to the public. To make reservations, please call the Institute for the Humanities at (973)655-7516 or email garsons@mail.montclair.edu.     

The session will bring together leading scholars in the field of genocide studies, MSU faculty and students, high school teachers, and members of the public interested in addressing and discussing current research on genocide and its prevention.     

  The program is made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partn er of the National Endowment of the Humanities.      

Four lectures are scheduled:

"Why Do They Kill and How Do We Stop It? Reflections from the Cambodian Genocide ," by Dr. Alexander Laban Hinton, associate professor of anthropology at Rutgers University. Drawing on his research on Cambodian genocide, Hinton's talk will explore how genocide comes to take place and how an understanding of the genocidal process might facilitate prediction and prevention. His talk will touch upon such issues as perpetrator motivation, international apathy, modernity and globalization. Hinton has conducted extensive field research in Cambodia, examining the legacies of genocide in that country. His most recent book, "Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide," explores the origins of the Cambodian genocide.

"Twentieth Century Genocides: Underlying Ideological Themes ," by Dr. Ben Kiernan, professor of history and international and area studies and founding director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University. Kiernan will discuss the underlying ideological themes in 20th century genocide, from Armenia to East Timor.   Kiernan has written extensively on the Cambodian genocide. His books include "The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79," and "How Pol Pot Came To Power: Colonialism, Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia."

"From Africa to Auschwitz: How German South West Africa Incubated Ideas and Methods Adopted by the Nazis in Eastern Europe ," by Benjamin Hadley, Ph.D. candidate at Yale University.   His talk will explore links between the German genocide of Herero and Nama peoples in German South West Africa (now Namibia) in the early 20th century and later Nazi mass murder in Eastern Europe. Madley earned a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University and a master's degree at Oxford University, where he wrote a thesis on the Herero and Nama genocides in German South West Africa.                

"In Search of Genocide Meaning," by Dr. Henry Huttenbach, professor of European history at the City College of New York.   Until World War Two genocide was studied via individual cases. Since the1980s the case-by-case method has and continues to accelerate. This has recently led to the comparative approach, in the hopes of coming to a deeper understanding of other genocidal events. But this has not led to deeper insights into the phenomenon of genocide. Huttenbach's talk is an attempt to lead towards a better grasp as to what genocide is as seen through several prisms, stressing that a universal consensus is unlikely. He is a specialist on Russia and Eastern Europe and is founder and editor in chief of The Journal of Genocide Research and The Genocide Forum . Huttenbach is the author of numerous books and articles in a dozen languages including "The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Worms, 1933-1945: A Study of the Holocaust Experience in Germany."

MSU is New Jersey's second largest and fastest growing university. It offers the advantages of a large university -- a comprehensive undergraduate curriculum with a global focus, a broad variety of superior graduate programs, and a diverse faculty and student body -- combined with a small college's attention to students.

More information on the University is available on its Web site at www.montclair.edu.

MSU is located at the intersection of Valley Road and Normal Avenue in Montclair. The campus is one mile south of the junction of routes 3 and 46, 14 miles west of New York City.

March 10, 2005