The conference Emerging Expertise: Holding Accountability Accountable (6-9 April 2017) will put a diverse array of early career scholars, lawyers, policymakers, and NGO staff working on issues germane to the aftermath of mass violence into conversation with one another in order to generate novel ideas about past cases and contemporary ones. Participants will explore "accountability" as a theoretical concept, methodological concern, moral principle, legal demand, and form of ethical engagement. Such exploration is needed, as "accountability" is an empty signifier, which permits a wide array of actors to define the term in ways that advance their competing agendas. Andrea Gualde, the former National Director of Legal Affairs of the Secretariat of Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice (Argentina), will be the keynote speaker. Author and journalist David Rieff will discuss his book In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies.

PAPERS LINKED BELOW ARE AVAILABLE ONLY TO CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS

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Program
2017
Thursday, April 6th
6:00 PM

Welcome and Opening Dinner

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

6:00 PM - 7:15 PM

Thomas Kühne, Strassler Center Director and History Professor

7:30 PM

Keynote address: “The Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Study of Human Rights Reparations: A Way to Achieve Accountability. The Case of Argentina.”

Clark University

7:30 PM

Andrea Gaulde, J.D., Senior Advisor for Latin America at the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

Introduction: Tibi Galis, Executive Director, Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

Friday, April 7th
9:00 AM

Historical Legacies

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Chair: Burçin Gerçek, Strassler Center Doctoral Student

Discussant: Ken MacLean, Associate Professor of International Development and Social Change, Clark University

“The French Revolution and Modern Dilemmas of Accountability”
Ronen Steinberg, Assistant Professor of History, Michigan State University
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“Metahistorical Glitches”
Gisele Iecker de Almeida, Visiting Researcher, Kings College, London
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“The Struggle over the Circassian Genocide: Between Historical Recognition and Current Practicalities”
Chen Bram, Hollander Visiting Professor, Clark University
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“Gaza and Heterotropia.”
Omri Ben-Yehuda, Solomon and Balaban Rector Postdoctoral Fellow, Hebrew University
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10:30 AM

Coffee Break

Clark University

10:30 AM

11:00 AM

Perpetrators as Insiders/Outsiders

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

11:00 AM - 12:45 PM

Chair: Jason Tingler, Strassler Center Doctoral Student

Discussant: Rosemary Nagy, Associate Professor of Gender Equality and Social Justice, Nipissing University, Ontario

“Remember, Unite, Renew? Accountability and Remorse among Women Perpetrators in Rwanda”
Sara E. Brown, Political Science Lecturer, San Diego State University
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“Crimes in Myanmar: The Use of International Criminal Law in Human Rights Advocacy”
Matthew Bugher, Independent lawyer and human rights researcher
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“Performing Accountability: Understanding the Myanmar Military’s Impunity for Human Rights Violations”
David Baulk, Myanmar Human Rights Specialist. Fortify Rights.
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12:45 PM

Lunch

Clark University

Rose Library, Cohen-Lasry House

12:45 PM

2:15 PM

Presence / Absence

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

2:15 PM - 3:45 PM

Chair: Anna Aleksanyan, Strassler Center Doctoral Student

Discussant: Valerie Sperling, Professor of Political Science, Clark University

"Mass Atrocities”
Melanie O’Brien, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia and Researcher, Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
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“Warrior Women: Indigenous Women and the Battle to Hold the Canadian State Accountable”
Robyn Bourgeois, Lecturer, Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia

“Accounting for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women in Canada”
Danielle Taschereau Mamers, Doctoral Student, Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario
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“Inner Peace? Sexual Violence, Accountability, and the Strength of Silence”
James Sedgwick, Assistant Professor in History, Acadia University, Nova Scotia
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3:45 PM

Break

Clark University

3:45 PM

4:15 PM

The Politics of Recognition

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

4:15 PM

Chair: Emil Kjerte, Strassler Center Doctoral Student

Discussant: Henry C. Theriault, Professor of Philosophy, Worcester State University

“Human Rights Victims or Victimized Heroes? Reparations and Competing Notions of Accountability in Post-Conflict Timor-Leste”
Amy Rothschild, Doctoral Student, Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
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“Accountability and Sacrifice: Seeking Justice for Political Prisoners in Myanmar”
Aileen Thomson, Head of Office, International Center for Transnational Justice
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“The Participatory Dimensions of Accountability: Examining Transitional Justice Mechanisms in Cambodia”
Tine Destrooper, Visiting Researcher, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University Law School
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“Acting Across Violence: Argentinean Civil Society, State Accountability, and the Activism of H.I.J.O.S.”
Kerry Whigham, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University
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6:00 PM

Social Hour

Clark University

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

Dinner

Clark University

7:00 PM

Saturday, April 8th
9:00 AM

Corporate Responsibility – Past, Present, and Future

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

9:00 AM

Chair: Emre Dağlioğlu, Strassler Center Doctoral Student

Discussant: Tyler Giannini, Clinical Professor of Law and Co-Director, International Human Rights Clinic, Harvard Law School

“Corporate Accountability and Non-Repetition Guarantees: What Does 'Peace' Mean for Indigenous People in Transitional Times?”
Monica Mazariegos Rodas, Rafael Landivar University, Guatemala
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“After a Century: Who and How Is Accountable for the Armenian Genocide?”
Vladimir Vardanyan, Head of the Division of International Treaties, Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia
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“SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français) and Deportations during WWII”
Sara Federman, Presidential Scholar, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
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“Business as Usual: Accountability and Private Enterprises in Nazi Germany and Beyond”
Johannes Beermann, Archivist, Fritz Bauer Institut and Doctoral Student, University of Hannover
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10:30 AM

Break

Clark University

10:30 AM

11:00 AM

The Politics of Efficiency and Effectiveness

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

11:00 AM

Chair: Simon Goldberg, Strassler Center Doctoral Student

Discussant: Leigh A. Payne, Professor of Sociology, Latin American Centre, Oxford University

“The Accountable Humanitarian: Practicing Accountability, Acting Without Responsibility?”
Jessica Anderson
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“Illiberal Transitional Justice: The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia”
Rebecca Gidley, Doctoral Student, Pacific and Asian History, Australian National University
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“Tuluwat: From Apology to Support”
Kerri Malloy, Lecturer in Native American Studies, Humboldt State University
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12:45 PM

Lunch

Clark University

12:45 PM

2:00 PM

Narrating Accountability

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

2:00 PM

Chair: Gabrielle Hauth, Strassler Center Doctoral Student

Discussant: Robert Tobin, Professor of Language and Literature, Clark University

“Remembering Silenced Tragedies: Experience in Memorializing Anniversaries of Mass Violence - The Case of Northern Uganda”
Jackson Odong, Centre Manager, National Memory and Peace Documentation Centre, Kitgum, Uganda,

“Between Victim and Perpetrator: Dealing with Memory and Accountability After Civil War”
Eva Willems, Doctoral Researcher, History Department, Ghent University
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“Embroidery as Narrative: Stitching Narratives of Trauma and Hope onto Black Cloth”
Puleng Segalo, Lecturer, University of South Africa
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“Truth, Trauma, and Hard Work: The Extractive Industry of Memory in Peru”
Caroline Yezer, PhD (Independent), Senior Program Chair, Association for Feminist Anthropology

3:45 PM

Break

Clark University

3:45 PM

4:30 PM

Public Lecture: David Rieff

Clark University

4:30 PM

Author of In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies (Yale University Press, 2016)

6:45 PM

Dinner

Clark University

6:45 PM

Sunday, April 9th
9:30 AM

Strategies of Preservation

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

9:30 AM

Chair: Mohammad Sajjadur Rahman, Strassler Center Doctoral Student

Discussant: Mary Jane Rein, Executive Director, Strassler Center

“Government Official Accountability for Prevention”
Tibi Galis, Executive Director, Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

“Countering Oblivion: Digital Strategies of Participation and Invisible Narratives of Diversity”
Kathrin Schon, Jewish Museum, Frankfurt
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“Active Acknowledgment Is Holding Nations Accountable: A Qualitative Study on Acknowledgment (and Denial) of Collective Victimization Among African-Americans, Armenian-Americans, Jewish Americans, and the Palestinian Diaspora”
Michelle Twali, Psychology Doctoral Student, Clark University
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“The Teaching of the Holocaust and Other Genocides in a Post-Conflict Society: Considerations about the Construction of a Public Policy in Argentina (2008-2015)”
Emmanuel Kahan, Adjunct Professor of Political Theory, National University of La Plata
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11:00 AM

Break

Clark University

11:00 AM

11:30 AM

Closing Roundtable

Clark University

Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons

11:30 AM

Discussants: Tyler Giannini, Leigh Payne, Rosemary Nagy

12:45 PM

Closing Lunch

Clark University

Rose Library, Cohen-Lasry House

12:45 PM