The G-Word: A Podcast on Genocide

We speak with Jehanne Henry and Niemat Ahmadi about genocidal violence, war and accountability in Sudan, from 2003 to the present. Niemat, a Sudanese activist from Darfur and a survivor, created the women-led non-profit organization Darfur Women Action Group, which advocates for the end of atrocities in Darfur and Sudan at large. Jehanne, a researcher, lawyer and lecturer at Columbia Law School and CUNY, worked for the UN Mission in Sudan and Human Rights Watch, and recently advised Sudan’s Judiciary during the democratic transition period. 

Further reading: “The worst forgotten conflict in the world: Sudan’s civil war one year on”, by Jehanne Henry.

Sudan: UN Fact-Finding Mission outlines extensive human rights violations, international crimes, urges protection of civilians

This episode is supported by Indiana University's Presidential Arts and Humanities Program, the Tobias Center, the African Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, and the Huh Jum Ok Human Rights Foundation.

Sound editing by Emily Leisz Carr, mixing by Seth Olansky, music "Souffle Nocturne" by Ben Cohen.

Production by Shilla Kim and Clémence Pinaud.

We speak with anthropologist Ken MacLean about human rights investigations in Myanmar: how atrocities are recorded both by local and international organizations, and how this affects the prospects for accountability. MacLean, professor at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies of Clark University, is the author of 'Crimes in Archival Form: Human Rights, Fact Production, and Myanmar' (University of California Press, 2022)

Further reading: Crimes in Archival Form. Human Rights, Fact Production, and Myanmar, and Human Rights 'Fact' Production And Why It Matters: Myanmar As A Case In Point, by Ken MacLean.

This episode is supported by Indiana University's Presidential Arts and Humanities Program, the Tobias Center, the African Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, and the Huh Jum Ok Human Rights Foundation.

Sound editing by Emily Leisz Carr, mixing by Seth Olansky, music "Souffle Nocturne" by Ben Cohen.

Production by Shilla Kim and Clémence Pinaud.

We discuss how genocide still impacts Native women with two members of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW). Angel Charley and Florida Olguin shed light on the enduring legacy of genocide and sexual violence in the U.S. today, and explain why it is so difficult to bring accountability for crimes of trafficking and of domestic and sexual violence.

Click here to support the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW).

This episode is supported by Indiana University's Presidential Arts and Humanities Program, the Tobias Center, the African Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, and the Huh Jum Ok Human Rights Foundation.

Sound editing by Emily Leisz Carr, mixing by Seth Olansky, music "Souffle Nocturne" by Ben Cohen.

Production by Shilla Kim and Clémence Pinaud.

We talk with historian Jeffrey Ostler about the history and patterns of the American genocide against native Nations. Ostler, an emeritus professor from the University of Oregon, is the author of 'Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas' (Yale University Press, 2020).

For further reading: Surviving Genocide. Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas, by Jeffrey Ostler.

The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research has shared videos from its international conference "Mass Violence and Its Lasting Impact on Indigenous Peoples - The Case of the Americas and Australia/Pacific Region," held at the University of Southern California, on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Tongva and Kizh Nation peoples, and livestreamed on Zoom from October 22 to October 26, 2022. Click here for the videos of the conference.

This episode is supported by Indiana University's Presidential Arts and Humanities Program, the Tobias Center, the African Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, and the Huh Jum Ok Human Rights Foundation.

Sound editing by Emily Leisz Carr, mixing by Seth Olansky, music "Souffle Nocturne" by Ben Cohen.

Production by Shilla Kim and Clémence Pinaud.

We speak with two former diplomats about their experiences before and during the third civil war in South Sudan that started in December 2013. Canadian Ambassador Nicholas Coghlan and former State Department diplomat Elizabeth Shackelford discuss the international community's reactions and the prospects for accountability.

For further reading: Collapse of A Country by Nicholas Coghlan, The Dissent Channel by Elizabeth Shackelford, and War and Genocide in South Sudan by Clemence Pinaud. 

This episode is supported by Indiana University's Presidential Arts and Humanities Program, the Tobias Center, the African Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, and the Huh Jum Ok Human Rights Foundation.

Sound editing by Emily Leisz Carr, mixing by Seth Olanksy, music "Souffle Nocturne" by Ben Cohen.

Production by Shilla Kim and Clémence Pinaud.

We talk with the representatives of two Yazidi organizations about the plight of the Yazidis, a religious minority targeted for genocide by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014. Natia Navrouzov from Yazda and Pari Ibrahim from the Free Yezidi Foundation discuss the efforts to bring accountability since 2014.

Support here the Free Yezidi Foundation and Yazda. 

Further reading: the UN report that concluded ISIS had committed genocide against the Yazidi people.

This episode is supported by Indiana University's Presidential Arts and Humanities Program, the Tobias Center, the African Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, and the Huh Jum Ok Human Rights Foundation.

Sound editing by Emily Leisz Carr, mixing by Seth Olansky, music "Souffle Nocturne" by Ben Cohen.

Production by Shilla Kim and Clémence Pinaud.

We speak with historian Dirk Moses about the origins of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: the lawyer behind it (Raphael Lemkin), its influence on the public understanding of genocide, how it has been used, and how political the process of accountability has become. 

For further reading: The Problems of Genocide, by Dirk Moses and the Genocide Convention.

This episode is supported by Indiana University's Presidential Arts and Humanities Program, the Tobias Center, the African Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, and the Huh Jum Ok Human Rights Foundation.

Sound editing by James Dorton and Emily Leisz Carr, mixing by Seth Olansky, music "Souffle Nocturne" by Ben Cohen.

Production by Shilla Kim and Clémence Pinaud.