Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies will host an international conference, Emerging Expertise: Holding Accountability Accountable, April 6-9. The conference will address the ways in which individual perpetrators and perpetrator societies are held to account (or not) in the aftermath of genocide and mass conflicts.

Two conference lectures will be free and open to the public:

The conference will open with a keynote lecture, “The Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Study of Human Rights Reparations: A Way to Achieve Accountability. The Case of Argentina,” by human rights lawyer Andrea Gualde, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 6, in the Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons. Gualde is the Senior Advisor for Latin America at the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation and a professor of International Jurisdiction at Di Tella University in Buenos Aires.

Beginning at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8, acclaimed journalist, author, and policy analyst David Rieff will lecture about his most recent book, “In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and its Ironies.” In this polemical meditation on collective memory, Rieff argues that remembering the past has done little to avert violence and in some cases fuels further conflict. Rieff’s lecture also will take place in the Higgins Lounge.

In addition to these public lectures, Holding Accountability Accountable will include eight  sessions (closed to the public) that put a diverse array of scholars, lawyers, policymakers, and practitioners working on issues germane to the aftermath of mass violence into conversation with one another.

“Accountability” is a dynamic relationship between groups and/or persons that varies across time and space. Post-conflict justice takes many different forms and we expect participants will engaged in rich conversations about all aspects of the subject including to what extent accountability achieves the goals it promises. Participants will explore “accountability” as a theoretical concept, methodological concern, moral principle, legal demand, and form of ethical engagement.

The conference favors emerging scholars and practitioners, a preference that is consistent with the Strassler Center’s long-standing focus on younger scholars. Presenters from 15 countries will present papers that address a wide breadth of cases, and their disciplinary perspectives and professional affiliations range across the spectrum. Scholars from Harvard University, Oxford University, and Nipissing University in Ontario will respond to the broad themes that emerge over the course of the three day conference.