About this event
Denial of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda has significantly increased in recent years, with prominent intellectuals and journalists finding a growing voice in the mainstream media and in academic institutions. This panel will bring together Rwandan and international experts from academia and civil society working on issues related to the genocide against the Tutsi and its denial. The event will take the form of a series of questions, prompting panellists to engage in discussions about genocide denial in its many manifestations, delineating the major arguments of genocide deniers and the forms and patterns denial takes. Panellists will also consider the consequences of genocide denial both in terms of its immediate impact on the survivor community as well as its broader impact on public opinion and political decision making. Finally, panellists will reflect on how we, as a community, should respond collectively to genocide denial in a general sense but also in specific cases where known genocide deniers are given a public platform.
Panellists:
Richard Benda
Phil Clark
Linda Melvern
Paul Rukesha
James Smith
Moderators:
Catherine Gilbert
Caroline Williamson Sinalo
Please send any queries about this event to catherine.gilbert@newcastle.ac.uk and caroline.williamsonsinalo@ucc.ie
Hosted by
Dr James Smith CBE is co-founder of The National Holocaust Centre and Museum (1995) and of the Aegis Trust (2000). In 2004 he worked with survivors and the Kigali City Council to establish the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the base from which the Aegis Trust’s Peace Education Programme was developed.
Linda Melvern researches and writes exclusively about the genocide against the Tutsi. Her books include A People Betrayed. The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide (Zed 2000), Conspiracy to Murder. The Rwandan Genocide (Verso 2004), Intent to Deceive. Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi (Verso 2020).
Dr Benda is a Tutor in Contextual and Practical Theology and specialises in the complex interactions between religious beliefs and political agency. His current research explores intergenerational dialogues on guilt, shame, transformation and accountability in the aftermath of the genocide.
Phil Clark has written extensively on post-genocide justice, reconciliation and memorialisation in Rwanda and on the politics of the International Criminal Court in Africa. In 2014, he founded the Aegis Trust programme on Research, Policy and Higher Education (RPHE) and is currently an RPHE advisor.
Graduating in sociology from the University of Rwanda, Paul Rukesha has worked for over a decade at the Kigali Genocide Memorial with the Aegis Trust, documenting eyewitness testimony and coordinating major projects for the Genocide Archive of Rwanda and National Archives Rwanda.
Dr Gilbert’s research examines genocide commemoration and education in the Rwandan diaspora. She is the author of From Surviving to Living: Voice, Trauma and Witness in Rwandan Women’s Writing (2018) and co-editor of On Commemoration: Global Reflections upon Remembering War (2020).
Dr Williamson Sinalo is author of Rwanda after Genocide: Gender, Identity and Posttraumatic Growth (CUP, 2018). Her research focuses on conflict in Africa’s Great Lakes region, touching on issues including testimony and trauma, media representations of conflict, and gender issues.
