September 10, 2019, TORONTO, ON — The International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute) is pleased to announce that 18 graduate-level students have graduated from the Institute’s 18th annual Genocide and Human Rights University Program hosted at the University of Toronto.
Every year, students come from all over the world to participate in this structured forum to explore universal questions relating to human rights and their gross violations. In the 2019 class, eleven different countries were represented including students from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Ukraine, Armenia, Syria, Turkey, Japan, the United States, Australia and Canada.
This high level of classroom diversity allowed students to raise awareness about atrocities in their respective countries, learn from a wide variety of case studies as well as current topics in genocide studies such as gender and genocide, attrition and connection between climate change and genocide.
The students use the themes presented in the classroom to better conceptualize their own research. The research interests of this year’s group of students ranged from the Mapuche people of Chile and Argentina to street violence in Medieval France. One student had this to say about their experience in course:
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity to know different points of view and to meet people from other countries who think in the same things I’m thinking, also to exchange experiences and opinions.”
The map below highlights some of the areas of academic interest for the 2019 GHRUP students:
On the final day of the program, students presented their personal research or professional interests for the class, faculty and staff and how it relates to and is reinforced by all that they had learned from the GHRUP’s seminars.
Over the two weeks of the program, students have not only studied with many of the best minds in the field, the program’s 13 distinguished faculty members, to strengthen their research, but they have built a community the extends far beyond the program itself.
Studying gross violations of human rights and genocide, while vastly important work, comes with and undeniable emotional cost that can be isolating at times. However, through the GHRUP, students have found a global community of like-minded individuals along the way that understand their struggles and share their dedication to scholarship in human rights and the pursuit of truth, prevention of human rights abuses and justice.
For more information on how you can participate or support the 2020 program, please visit www.genocidestudies.org or contact admin@genocidestudies.org.
