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In the following forum on the
comparative study of genocide, we first establish that comparative work is
analytically and pedagogically crucial to the study of genocide, while arguing
that survivor testimony is an essential and important source for grounding
comparative work. We accomplish
this by orienting a review of scholarly literature around two critical
questions: How closely must events resemble the Holocaust in order to be
recognized as "genocide"? Is it
possible to think comparatively about multiple genocides without creating
hierarchies of suffering on the one hand and shallow parallels on the
other? We next suggest that digital
humanities tools can facilitate comparative research on genocide testimony,
and, finally, that these tools can be made pedagogically useful for teachers
and students seeking to learn about various genocides. To that end, this forum
includes an annotated resource guide of scholarship and digital resources
pertaining to the study of genocide and settler colonialism. We contend that
this methodological combination can produce a comparative approach to the study
of genocide that is both analytically rigorous to scholars as well as
pedagogically accessible to students, including high school students. As an example, we discuss a pilot
program with high school students and teachers (11th–12th grade) who engaged in historical analysis of survivor testimonies using
comparative themes. We also provide
and discuss the analytical tool that we developed to guide such work.
Jason Bruner is an Assistant Professor of
Religious Studies in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious
Studies at Arizona State University. His first book, Living Salvation
in the East African Revival in Uganda, is forthcoming with University of
Rochester Press. |
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