INoGS 9th International Conference on Genocide:
“Genocide and Survivor Communities: Agency, Resistance, Recognition”
Hosted by CAGR at USC, June 23-26, 2024
In June, the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research hosted the ninth biennial conference of the International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS).
The interdisciplinary conference, co-organized by INoGS and the Center, brought together almost 200 leading and emerging scholars to discuss groundbreaking research on individual cases and comparative analyses of genocide, mass violence, colonial violence and genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity across a wide variety of historical, geographic, and cultural contexts. The special focus of this conference was on survivor communities and the individual experiences, perspectives, agency, and resistance of victims and survivors, not only in the aftermath of state violence, but during the mass atrocities as well.
Scholars presented on almost 50 different cases of genocide, mass violence, war crimes, and state violence. Many scholars praised the format of the discussion-driven conference where most of the conference panels were organized around themes rather than around historical events and dedicated ample time of exchange to every presentation. This resulted in attendees learning about events they had not heard of before, discovering valuable insights from comparative cases and methods, and cultivating new networks and collaborations across subfields and disciplines.
Below find a word cloud generated from the titles of the conference presentations with prevalent themes from the conference. See also a selection of events discussed, as defined by the participants.
Keynote speakers included Kimberly Morales Johnson (Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, University of California, Davis), who spoke about Tongva history and culture in the region that is now called Los Angeles; Professor Marcia Esparza (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York), who presented on the Guatemalan genocide, its aftermath, and memory; and Shibley Telhami (Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, University of Maryland), who discussed past and future of Israel/Palestine in the shadow of the war in Gaza.
Scholars from 46 countries attended the conference. Thanks to our cosponsors, the organizers were able to prioritize travel grants for scholars residing in the Global South. Hence, we hosted a sizeable contingent of scholars from countries such as Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burundi, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Myanmar, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, and Turkey, among others. The conference featured simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish and Spanish to English for a portion of the conference proceedings, as well as one panel simultaneously interpreted from Armenian to English and vice versa.
Over the course of the four days of the conference, scholars participated in 42 scholarly panels, four roundtables, three keynote lectures, two cultural events, two introductions to USC institutes and archives, a welcome reception, the biennial INoGS Awards dinner (honoring 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award winners Pumla Godobo-Madikizela and Alex Hinton and 2024 Impact Award winners Dirk Moses and Tali Nates), three lunches catered by restaurants/kitchens from survivor communities in Los Angeles, and four excursions to sites in/near Los Angeles relevant to the themes of the conference.
The four excursions included:
Sites of historical and cultural significance for the Armenian community (organized and hosted by the USC Institute of Armenian Studies)
Kuruvungna Village Springs, the sacred site for the Indigenous Gabrieleno-Tongva community in Los Angeles (hosted by conference keynote speaker Kimberly Morales Johnson and other tribe members)
Manzanar National Historic Site, where the United States established the first of ten internment camps for Japanese Americans and resident Japanese aliens from 1942 to 1945 (accompanied by Matthew Weisbly, USC alumnus and Education Programs Manager of the Japanese American Citizens League)
Japanese American National Museum and the surrounding neighborhood of Little Tokyo
The conference was organized by the International Network of Genocide Scholars and co-organized and hosted by the Center. Cosponsors included the USC Shoah Foundation, the Armenian Genocide Research Program of the Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, the USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Los Angeles, the USC Dornsife Office of the Dean, the USC Office on Research and Innovation, the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture, the USC Dornsife Center for International Studies, and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
To get a sense of the diversity of presenters, topics, and proceedings throughout the conference, read the full INoGS conference program here.