Universität Wien

240143 SE VM4 / VM6 - Cultures and politics of memory 30 years after the genocide in Rwanda (2024S)

7.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 07.03. 09:00 - 12:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 21.03. 09:00 - 12:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 18.04. 09:00 - 12:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 02.05. 09:00 - 12:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 16.05. 09:00 - 12:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 13.06. 09:00 - 12:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 27.06. 09:00 - 12:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

April 2024 will mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Between April and July 1994, more than half a million people - three quarters of the country's Tutsi population - were murdered in 100 days. The international community did nothing to stop the killings. Alison de Forges wrote in the introduction to an online publication of the Human Rights Watch report, Leave None To Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda 2004: 'The Rwandan genocide of 1994 was one of the defining events of the twentieth century. It ended the illusion that the evil of genocide had been eradicated and spurred a renewed commitment to halting genocides in the future'.
This course looks at ways of coming to terms with and remembering this genocide. What does its memory mean in Rwanda and beyond today? In what forms has testimony been given and by whom? What is the place of the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda in global memory? What can we learn from it for the present?

Assessment and permitted materials

- Attendance and participation in the seminar units (excused absence from a maximum of one of seven blocks is permitted)
- Preparatory reading of texts with short written assignments on the texts
- Short written concept for a seminar paper by mid-April 2024
- Oral presentation on the topic of the seminar paper
- Seminar paper of approx. 6,000 words (15 pages). Deadline for submission: 31 August 2024
- To safeguard good academic practice, the lecturer may ask students to reflect on their seminar paper in a conversation. Students must successfully pass this reflection.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The minimum requirement for a positive assessment is the writing of a seminar paper (accepted languages: English, German, French) and the completion of all partial performances during the semester (see above). Attendance is compulsory; excused absence from a maximum of one of seven blocks is permitted. Each assignment is graded separately. The seminar paper counts for 50% of the assessment of the course, the partial performances (participation, preparation of a text for discussion, concept presentation and presentation on a topic) for a total of 50%.

- Preparatory reading, written assignments and participation in group discussions: 25 %
- Short written concept and oral presentation: 25 %
- Seminar paper: 50 %

Examination topics

A course reading list will be given at the beginning of the semester. For the seminar paper, independent research and reading of research literature on the chosen topic are required.

Reading list

Dallaire, Roméo, und Brent Beardsley. 2005. Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf.
Dauge-Roth, Alexandre. 2010. Writing and Filming the Genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda: Dismembering and Remembering Traumatic History, Lanham et al, 2010.
DesForges, Alison Liebhafsky, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, Human Rights Watch und International Federation of Human Rights, Paris and New York, 1999.
Diop, Boubacar Boris. Murambi: The Book of Bones. Übersetzt von Fiona Mc Laughlin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Eltringham, Nigel. Accounting for Horror: Post-Genocide Debates in Rwanda. London?; Sterling, Va: Pluto Press, 2004.
Gourevitch, Philip. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998.
Green, Llezile L. (2002) ‘Gender Hate Propaganda and Sexual Violence in the Rwanda Genocide: Argument for Intersectionality in International Law.’ Columbia Human Rights Law Review 33/3: 733-776.
Hitchcott, Niki (2015) Rwanda Genocide Stories: Fiction after 1994. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Jaji, Rose. ‘Under the Shadow of Genocide: Rwandans, Ethnicity and Refugee Status’. Ethnicities 17 (1): 4765, 2017.
Kayitesi, Annick. Wie Phönix aus der Asche: Ich überlebte das Massaker in Ruanda. München: Heyne, 2005.
Kyomuhendo, Goretti. Secrets No More. Kampala: Femrite, 1999.
Lemarchand, René, Rwanda: The State of Research. Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence,
https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/rwanda-state-research.html
Mamdani, Mahmood. When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Mujawayo, Esther, und Souâd Belhaddad. Auf der Suche nach Stéphanie: Ruanda zwischen Versöhnung und Verweigerung. Wuppertal: Hammer, 2007.
Mujawayo, Esther, Souâd Belhaddad, und Jutta Himmelreich. Ein Leben mehr: zehn Jahre nach dem Völkermord in Ruanda. Wuppertal: Hammer, 2005.
Mukasonga, Scholastique. Die Heilige Jungfrau vom Nil Roman. Übersetzt von Andreas Jandl und Indra Wussow. Heidelberg, Neckar: Das Wunderhorn, 2014.
Newbury, David. ‘Understanding Genocide’. African Studies Review 41 (1) 73-97, 1998.
Rurangwa, Révérien. Genocide: My Stolen Rwanda. London: Reportage Press, 2009.
Straus, Scott, und Lars Waldorf, Hrsg. Remaking Rwanda: State Building and Human Rights after Mass Violence. Madison, Wis: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2011.
Stockhammer, Robert. Ruanda: Über einen anderen Genozid schreiben. Frankfurt am Main, 2005.
Tadjo, Véronique. der schatten gottes: Reise ans Ende Ruandas. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag, 2001.
Tossa, Messan. ‘Artefakte der Holocaustliteratur im afrikanischen Kontext’. S: I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation. 9 (1): 44-57, 2022. https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0122/art_mtos01.
Viebach, Julia. 'Mediating 'absence-presence' at Rwanda's genocide memorials: of care-taking, memory and proximity to the dead.' Critical African Studies, 12(2), 237269, 2020.

Association in the course directory

VM4 / VM6
Afrikawissenschaften:
SAG.SE2
SAG.KU2
SAG.KU3
SAL.SE1
SAL.SE2

Last modified: We 31.07.2024 12:06