Not to Forgive, but to Understand

We speak with Kate English and Kim Klett of the Educators Institute for Human Rights (EIHR), an organization that works with teachers internationally to develop resources and training in Holocaust, genocide, human rights, and conflict education. We discuss what responsible genocide education requires in classrooms and post-conflict settings, including teacher training, accessible educational mater...

Investigative journalist Judi Rever joins us to discuss her work on Rwanda, Congo, and the Great Lakes region. Drawing from her books *In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front* and *Rwanda’s 30-Year Assault on Congo: The Crimes, the Criminals and the Cover-Up*, Rever examines contested histories of violence, regional war, impunity, and international complicity. The conversatio...

Edward Westermann is the Theodore Zev and Alice R. Weiss HEF Chair in Holocaust Studies and Visiting Professor in the Department of History at Northwestern University. He is the author of Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany, which received the 2023 Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research. In this conversation, Professor Westermann discusses his research on...

The plight of the Rohingya remains under-addressed in public discourse, even as the genocide case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar continues before the International Court of Justice. In this interview, we speak with Mahi Ramakrishnan, an investigative journalist, filmmaker, and founder of Beyond Borders Malaysia, about refugees in Malaysia, the legal and political barriers they face, and her...

There are genocides that are neglected and underreported, and Sudan is often sidelined while other conflicts dominate global attention. In this episode, we speak with Christopher Tounsel, historian of modern Sudan and author of “Bounds of Blackness: African Americans, Sudan, and the Politics of Solidarity”. We examine how African Americans have engaged with Sudan across the twentieth and twenty-fi...

Despite the announcement of a ceasefire, conditions in Gaza remain unstable and violence continues to affect civilian life and medical care. Saira Hussain discusses her most recent medical mission to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza. Drawing on her experience working in a severely constrained healthcare system, she reflects on the conditions inside the hospital, the practical limits of medical...

We spoke with Catherine Filloux, an award-winning French Algerian American playwright and librettist whose work has engaged human rights, war, and mass atrocity for more than three decades. Her plays and operas have been produced internationally, including in New York, Bosnia, and Cambodia, and she has written extensively about genocide, post-conflict memory, and the moral responsibilities of law...

In this episode, we speak with Omer Bartov about academic silence, Gaza, and the costs of speaking publicly about ongoing mass violence. Bartov reflects on the pressures shaping scholarly speech in the United States, the uneven application of legal and moral frameworks, and what the world’s response to Gaza reveals about whose lives are recognized and protected. He also addresses the personal and...

In this episode of Not to Forgive, but to Understand, we are joined by Daria Mattingly, a historian whose work focuses on perpetrator studies and the social and cultural history of the Soviet Union, with particular emphasis on Ukraine. The conversation centers on the Holodomor, examining how famine policies were enforced at the village level by rank-and-file actors and perpetrators rather than sol...

In this episode of Not to Forgive, but to Understand, we are joined by Saira Hussain, an anesthetist who has worked in Gaza at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis through humanitarian deployments with Medical Aid for Palestinians and IDEALS. This conversation explores what it means to deliver critical care inside a collapsing health system. Drawing on firsthand experience, Saira discusses blockade cond...

In this episode, we speak with David Chandler, historian of Cambodia, biographer of Pol Pot, and leading researcher on the S-21 Prison under the Khmer Rouge, who provided expert testimony at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in 2009 and 2012. He is joined by Peg LeVine, a medical anthropologist, psychologist, sculptor, and clinician whose work addresses mass killing and torture,...

In this episode, we speak with Amy Fagin, the author and project lead of Beyond Genocide; members of the Beyond Genocide Arts Award Advisory Council—Bjorn Krondorfer, Alexis Herr, and Sabah Carrim—as well as Linda Paganelli, the 2024–2025 award recipient. The conversation examines the Beyond Genocide arts award and exhibition, focusing on artistic responsibility, ethical representation, jury persp...

In this episode, we’re joined by Alexandra Birch, violinist, historian, and author of Hitler’s Twilight of the Gods: Music and the Orchestration of War and Genocide in Europe. Birch’s research examines how music and sound functioned as tools of power, identity, and violence under totalitarian regimes. Drawing on survivor testimony and archival materials, her work exposes how sound, whether through...

In this conversation, Mehnaz Afridi—Professor of Religion and Philosophy and Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan University—discusses her groundbreaking work “Shoah Through Muslim Eyes”, the overlooked stories of Muslims in the Holocaust, the challenges of teaching about Zionism and antisemitism, and the urgent need for interfaith dialogue in today’s p...

In this episode of Not to Forgive, but to Understand , we speak with Bruce Robbins—Columbia University professor and author of Atrocity: A Literary History . Drawing on his recent book, we explore how literature grapples with the representation of mass violence, and examine his work through the lens of genocide studies. We explore questions about prolepsis and historical inevitability, the role of...

Description In this episode, we speak with Ava Homa—award-winning author of Daughters of Smoke and Fire and Echoes from the Other Land —about Kurdish identity, structural violence, and the cycles of oppression in Iran. Homa discusses the intersection of literature and activism, the emotional and political risks of storytelling, and the global forces that shape—and often distort—struggles for justi...

In this episode, we speak with Roni Mikel Arieli, a cultural historian and Teaching and Research Fellow at the Rabb Center for Holocaust Studies, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Mikel Arieli specializes in modern Jewish history, African studies, Holocaust and genocide studies, and memory studies. We dive into her work on Jewish detainees exiled to Mauritius during World War II—a story of colon...

🎙️ In this episode, we sit down with Zachariah Mampilly—Marxe Endowed Chair of International Affairs at CUNY and co-founder of the Program on African Social Research—to unpack the deep historical and geopolitical roots of the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We explore how the 1994 Rwandan genocide and subsequent regional wars laid the foundation for instability in the DRC, th...

Join us as we're privileged to host Dirk Moses, the Anne N. Bernard Spitzer Professor of Political Science at City University of New York and author of 'The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression.' Tune in as we examine the critical questions of genocide research, including reflections on the recent situation in Israel and Gaza.

Join us in conversation with Alex Hinton, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, and UNESCO Chair in Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University. In this interview, we delve into the role of The Engaged Scholar and the pedagogical merits of Genocide Studies. Tune in for valuable insights into these critical issues.

Join us for an enriching conversation with Zukiswa Wanner, acclaimed writer and activist, as she shares insights from Johannesburg, South Africa. In this interview, Zukiswa reflects on her literary achievements, activism, and firsthand experiences in Palestine. Tune in for an inspiring conversation!

Join us for an insightful conversation with Omar Yousef Shehabi, an acting assistant professor at NYU School of Law and a JSD candidate at Yale Law School. With a wealth of experience working as a legal officer for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other international organizations, Omar provides a unique perspective on the complexities...

Join us for an insightful conversation with Arie M. Dubnov, Jewish-Israeli historian and associate professor at George Washington University. Dubnov discusses the complexities of genocide studies, the role of oral histories in the Holocaust, and its influence on understanding genocide. He also touches on academic freedom, populist media challenges, and his work "Agnotology in Palestine/Israel...

In this interview, historian and sociologist Uğur Ümit Üngör discusses the controversy and complication over the use of the “g-word” (genocide), as well as the damage done to humanity because some genocides are deemed “more equal” than others. Drawing on his expertise in genocide and mass atrocity in the Middle East, he discusses how these issues intersect with the ongoing conflicts in Israel and...

In this episode, we are joined by Yair Wallach, Chair of the Centre for Jewish Studies at SOAS, University of London, to discuss the January 2025 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Gaza officials. The conversation examines the immediate and ongoing impacts of the ceasefire, including humanitarian aid access, the temporary pause in hostilities, and the challenges of maintaining peace amid Israe...