We are a network of scholars who have come together because our field and our institutions are in crisis. We work in a variety of disciplines in the field generally known as Holocaust and Genocide Studies and have expertise in histories, theories, and contemporary cases of racism, antisemitism, fascism, and political violence, and in the study of genocides and mass atrocities in different parts of the world. Members of the group have affiliations in related fields such as Human Rights, International Law, Jewish Studies, Memory Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Settler Colonial Studies, Migration Studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies.
In the United States and globally, far-right forces are dismantling the institutions of democratic life; threatening basic human rights; demonizing immigrants, racialized minorities, and queer and transgender life; and attacking freedom of speech and assembly along with academic freedom. Over the last year and a half, we have witnessed the weaponization of Holocaust memory and accusations of antisemitism to justify genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing throughout Palestine — not only by state actors but also by institutions and scholars in our field. In the US, this same weaponization has resulted in the violent suppression of the right to free expression and protest and now in the arrest and threatened deportation of non-citizen students. The campuses where we work are subject to extortionate demands from a government that openly advertises its intent to destroy higher education, civil rights protections, scientific inquiry, and intellectual life.
Such events require an urgent examination of our field’s frameworks, priorities, and investments, and we commit to respond to this crisis in productive collaboration. Our expertise helps us to recognize and understand the erosion of democracy and the unfolding of political violence that we see all around us. Our study of histories of genocide and mass atrocity gives us insight into the rise of authoritarianism and ethnonationalism; the processes of dehumanization, ethnic cleansing, and genocide that accompany it; and the urgent need for civil society resistance. As we face this alarming authoritarian and nationalist turn, we come together in a joint commitment to mobilize our work in the interest of social justice and equality for all.
Our network grows out of a series of shared commitments and beliefs:
Academic freedom, free speech, and the right to non-violent protest at colleges and universities are essential to the defense of human rights and resistance against political violence. We vigorously support freedom of inquiry and expression in the face of a rising repression that threatens pluralistic and inclusive scholarly discourse.
Our scholarship and activism must work to counter structures and practices of racism (including but not limited to antisemitism, anti-Blackness, anti-Palestinian racism, and anti-Muslim racism), ethnonationalism, misogyny, queer and trans exclusion, ableism, and red-baiting, among other forms of social exclusion and political authoritarianism.
It is necessary to refuse and contest the increasing instrumentalization of antisemitism accusations, including through the IHRA Working Definition, which wrongly equates critique of Israel’s policies with antisemitism. Such instrumentalization silences political dissent, enables deportations and firings, serves as a vehicle for advancing authoritarian and nationalist agendas, and exploits feelings of vulnerability. It also endangers Jews, cynically divides the Jewish community, and drives a wedge between Jews and other minority and civil society groups.
We believe historical analogy and collective memory are powerful resources for understanding and mobilizing opposition to persecution, war, forced population transfer, and genocide against anyone, yet we remain vigilant about the ways they can be deployed to justify violence and reproduce forms of ethnonationalism and racial supremacy.
We recognize the Nakba as a mass atrocity crime that demands both scholarly attention and justice. Scholars in Holocaust and Genocide Studies should engage with Palestinian scholarship and perspectives on the Nakba, as well as broader global conversations around violence, displacement, and their legacies. As scholars and teachers, we unconditionally oppose the destruction of educational institutions, archives, cultural heritage, and memory; and we believe all who live between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea—Palestinians, Israelis, and others—deserve justice and equality.
We seek to put our core principles into practice by:
Supporting each other in our commitments and institutional struggles;
Alerting colleagues to the crisis in our field and contesting passivity, complicity, and denial in our institutions, whether universities, museums, research centers, or scholarly associations;
Advocating for colleagues and students who are targeted, intimidated, or harassed for their scholarship and/or political beliefs by right-wing actors, the state, or their own employers, including public and private universities;
Urging our own campuses as well as all institutions dedicated to teaching and research on the Holocaust, genocide, and political violence to uphold democratic principles, basic freedoms, and human rights; to assertively resist rising authoritarianism and fascism; and to stand with those subjected to and/or opposing forced population transfer, gross human rights violations, and genocide anywhere;
Developing and deepening relationships of solidarity and intellectual collaboration with Palestinian scholars and scholars in Palestine Studies, as well as with genocide studies scholars broadly;
Building an independent, online platform for pedagogy and research, with resources that educate about fascism, genocide, Israel/Palestine, racism, antisemitism, and other group-based forms of hatred and discrimination.
Taner Akçam, Director of the Armenian Genocide Research Program, Promise Armenian Institute, UCLA
Omer Bartov, Dean’s Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Brown University
Frank Biess, Professor of History, Rita Atkinson Chair in German Studies, UC-San Diego
Debórah Dwork, Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, Graduate Center— CUNY
Atina Grossmann, Professor of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cooper Union
Wolf Gruner, Professor of History, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, Founding Director, Center for Advanced Genocide Research, University of Southern California
Marianne Hirsch, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and Gender Studies, Columbia University
Brett Ashley Kaplan, Director of the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Shira Klein, Associate Professor of History, Chapman University
Eric Kurlander, William R. Kenan Jr Professor of History and Director of Jewish Studies, Stetson University
Nitzan Lebovic, Professor of History and Holocaust Studies, Lehigh University
Michael Rothberg, Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Holocaust Studies, UCLA
Raz Segal, Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University
Sarah Stein, Distinguished Professor of History, UCLA
Frances Tanzer, Associate Professor of History, Rose Professor of Holocaust Studies and Jewish Culture, Clark University
Barry Trachtenberg, Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish Studies, Wake Forest University
Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Associate Professor of Psychology, Clark University
Ran Zwigenberg, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, History, and Jewish Studies, Pennsylvania State University
And others...