USC Trustee Steven Spielberg joined USC leadership in announcing The Center for Advanced Genocide Research, which aims to study how and why mass violence occurs. The Center is established as part of the USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education, and will serve as the research and scholarship unit of the USC Shoah Foundation, building off the substantial academic work the Institute has accomplished since joining USC in 2006.
“We are honored to establish this vital center of scholarship and learning,” Nikias said. “The University of Southern California is and will always remain committed to creating a world freed from genocide. Through the Center for Advanced Genocide Research, we resolve to have a global impact on the real-world problem of genocide.”
“The USC Shoah Foundation has made tremendous progress during its first 20 years, but its work is far from finished,” Spielberg said. “The Institute has collected and indexed nearly 52,000 testimonies and established educational programs, such as IWitness and Teaching With Testimony that bring people who experienced history into classrooms around the world. Now comes the next significant chapter, one that establishes the Institute as one of the leading academic centers of excellence for the study of the Holocaust and genocides. The potential is there for groundbreaking research.”
The Center for Advanced Genocide Research will distinguish itself by focusing on interdisciplinary study organized around three themes to advance the analysis of genocide and systematic mass violence on an international scale.
- Resistance to Genocide and Mass Violence will focus on acts of resistance and elements of defiance that slow down or stop genocidal processes.
- Violence, Emotion and Behavioral Change will study the nature of genocide and mass violence and how they impact emotional, social, psychological, historical and physical behavior.
- Digital Genocide Studies examines how big data and large datasets, including the 52,000 testimonies in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, can be used to find patterns in the field of mass violence and its resistance.
Read the complete article at USC News.