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Roundtable on Genocide Studies on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of Genocide Studies International

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May 1, 2026

Amy Sedaro, a sociologist focused on memorials and cultural memory. Cheng (Ting) Xu, a former military officer studying counterinsurgency and state violence. Maureen Hebert, a political scientist who researches elite decision-making in mass atrocities. They discuss the field of genocide studies, interdisciplinarity, debates over scholarship versus activism, journal goals and future directions, and advice for early-career researchers.

01:02:34

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INSIGHT

Genocide Is A Varied And Often Ongoing Process

Genocide is a varied, protracted process with unique case-specific trajectories, not a single event.
Maureen Hebert highlights precursors, destructive processes, and long or ongoing aftermaths, especially in settler-colonial contexts.

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Passion Drives Genocide Scholarship And Activism

Many genocide scholars enter the field driven by personal conviction, so activism and scholarship coexist.
Cheng notes a selection effect: passionate people choose genocide topics and often aim for real-world impact.

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Be Realistic About Scholarly Impact On Policy

Academic impact on policy is limited and uneven; scholars should be realistic about influence.
Maureen Hebert urges tolerance for diverse scholarly positions and cautions against blaming academics when governments ignore warnings.

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Why a roundtable on Genocide Studies

01:45 • 3min

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Maureen's path into genocide studies

05:11 • 2min

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Cheng (Ting) Xu's military perspective

07:14 • 2min

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Amy's memory studies approach

09:32 • 2min

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Defining genocide studies and interdisciplinarity

11:21 • 6min

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Broad questions within genocide studies

Should genocide scholars aim to affect policy?

20:00 • 4min

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Personal motivations and prevention hopes

23:44 • 3min

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Debates and contention in the field

27:02 • 9min

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GSI's founding goals and audience

36:12 • 5min

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Future directions for the journal

41:05 • 5min

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Advice for graduate students publishing

46:24 • 5min

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Accessing scholarship as a non-academic

The New Age of Genocide

Martin Shaw

In The New Age of Genocide, Martin Shaw revisits his earlier theorizing on the links between war and genocide in light of twenty-first-century changes in conflict. He analyzes how new forms of warfare, political fragmentation, and technological developments reshape opportunities and motivations for mass atrocities. Drawing on comparative historical case studies and updated theoretical frameworks, Shaw assesses whether patterns identified earlier still hold and how prevention efforts must adapt. The book contributes to ongoing debates in genocide studies about continuity and change in causes and mechanisms of large-scale political violence. It appeals to scholars interested in the intersection of war studies, political violence, and atrocity prevention.

#49066

War and Genocide

Organized Killing in Modern Society

Martin Shaw

Martin Shaw's book examines the relationship between warfare and genocide, arguing that genocidal processes are often embedded in broader conditions of conflict. He combines historical and sociological analysis to theorize why war creates structures and opportunities for mass violence against civilian groups. Shaw explores various cases to illustrate how military, political, and social dynamics during war increase risks of genocidal outcomes. The book has been influential for scholars seeking to understand the conditions under which genocide is likelier to occur and for connecting scholarship on war with genocide studies. Shaw later revisited and updated many of these themes in subsequent work addressing contemporary changes in warfare and mass atrocity.

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Accounting for genocide

Helen Fein

Helen Fein's Accounting for Genocide is an early, influential contribution to genocide studies that applies social science methods to explain why genocides occur. Fein examines structural, ideological, and political factors that contribute to the emergence of genocidal policy and mass violence. The book aims to provide conceptual clarity and frameworks useful for comparative analysis and prevention efforts. Its work helped lay foundations for later interdisciplinary scholarship in the field and remains a reference point for students and scholars interested in theoretical accounts of genocide causation. Fein's approach combines empirical evidence with normative concern about prevention and accountability.

#71228

Colonialism and Genocide

Edited volume by Dirk Moses and Dan Stone

Colonialism and Genocide is an edited volume that brings together scholarship interrogating the links between colonial practices and genocidal violence, with particular attention to settler-colonial contexts in places like Canada, Australia, and the United States. Editors and contributors reassess traditional genocide narratives by highlighting how colonial policies produced long-term processes of dispossession, violence, and cultural destruction targeting indigenous populations. The collection challenges scholars to turn the analytical lens toward their own societies and consider how genocide can be embedded in colonial-state formation and expansion. By situating genocide within broader imperial practices, the volume expands theoretical frameworks and encourages interdisciplinary engagement across history, political science, and memory studies. It has influenced subsequent research on settler colonialism and genocide.

#3278

• Mentioned in 15 episodes

King Leopold's Ghost

A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

Adam Hochschild

This book by Adam Hochschild explores the period from 1885 to 1908 when King Leopold II of Belgium exploited the Congo Free State, committing large-scale atrocities. The narrative includes the lives of key figures such as Henry Morton Stanley, George Washington Williams, William Sheppard, and Edmund Morel, who played crucial roles in exposing and challenging Leopold’s regime. The book also delves into the broader context of European colonialism and its lasting impacts, as well as the early media campaigns against humanitarian crises. Hochschild’s work provides a nuanced view of colonial dynamics and the struggles of African voices during this era.

2026 marks the 20th year of publishing Genocide Studies International. The journal's first issue was a special issue on genocide in Darfur. Twenty years later, newspapers and podcasts are talking again about mass violence in Sudan.

So I thought it would be a good time to host a discussion among current and former editors of the journal about the state of genocide studies and about how academic journals can contribute to its goals. We talked about the nature of the field of genocide studies, about what it means to be a scholar in a field where activism is common, and about how GSI understands its purpose. And we say a bit to graduate students and early career academics about how to get an article published in GS.

If you're interested in this interview, I'd suggest looking back in the NBGS archives to look for discussions about the purpose of genocide education with Maureen Hiebert and Jim Waller and an interview with John Roth and Carol Rittner about their belief that Holocaust and Genocide education is failing to achieve that purpose.

Genocide Studies International is a journal of the Zoryan Institute and is published by University of Toronto Press. You can find more information about Zoryan here Home - Zoryan Institute and suscribe to the journal here Genocide Studies International Home | University of Toronto Press

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