Dr Claire Moon STC S109

This course is available on the BSc in Social Policy and Sociology and BSc in Sociology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available to General Course students.

Sociology students will be given priority.

This course cannot be taken in conjunction with IR312 Genocide.

No specific pre-requisites, but this is open only to 2nd and 3rd year students in Sociology and other programmes. It is not available as a 1st year option.

The course will cover a number of issues relevant to the study of atrocity and justice for atrocity. It looks at the social construction of atrocities, the Genocide Convention, structural approaches to understanding genocide (modernity, democracy and colonial rule), the perpetrators. victims and witnesses of atrocity, the problem of denial of state crimes, historical injustices in Australia, Canada and the US, forensic investigations of atrocity, retributive and restorative approaches to justice for atrocity, truth commissions and war crimes tribunals. 

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

Formative assessment will be as follows:

1. Class presentation: students will conduct one class presentation and will receive detailed feedback which will focus on points for improvement for the assessed components;

2. Practice essay: students will carry out one practice essay during week 6 (reading week) of the LT. They will receive detailed feedback for this in preparation for the summative assessments.

Arendt, Hannah (1994) Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin Books)

Bauman, Zygmunt (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust (Cambridge: Polity)

Browning, Christopher (1992) Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 (New York: HarperCollins):

Cohen, Stan (2001) States of Denial (Cambridge: Polity Press)

Hacking, Ian (1999) The Social Construction of What? (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)

Jones, Adam (2011) Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction, 2nd edition (London: Routledge)

Wilson, Richard (2001) The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-Apartheid State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Exam (60%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (40%, 2500 words) in the ST.

Two hard copies of the assessed essay, with submission sheets attached to each, to be handed in to the Administration Office, S116, no later than 16:30 on the first Tuesday of Summer Term. An additional copy to be uploaded to Moodle no later than 18:00 on the same day.