Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide Unit

The Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide Unit is committed to diversity and inclusivity. Pre-arranged panels should reflect gender and racial/ethnic diversity as well as diversity of field, method, and scholarly rank as appropriate.

• Co-sponsored with the Indigenous Religious Traditions Unit and the Native Traditions in the Americas Unit, we seek proposals that address the genocidal aspects of European colonialism by historically linking or comparing the genocide of Indigenous Peoples, US Slavery, and the Holocaust. This approach may include an explicit assessment of or engagement with Raoul Peck’s Exterminate All the Brutes—which he describes as tracing the origins of white supremacy through historically linking the genocide of Native Americans, US Slavery, and the Holocaust—or any comparative historical or conceptual analysis between any of these two atrocities. A comparison that includes a case of a genocide of Indigenous Peoples is of particular interest.

• Co-sponsored with the Comparative Religious Ethics Unit, we invite papers that explore the experiences of religious minorities in mass atrocities. Topics may include, but are not limited to: the logics of the persecution of religious minorities; the role of religious ethics in rescue behavior of or by religious minorities; and the ethics governing post-atrocity processes among religious minorities, such as theodicies, reconciliation, and healing rituals.

• We invite proposals that critically reflect on popular media formats and technologies—such as podcasts, virtual reality, holograms, films, and video games–that seek to educate the wider public on genocides.
• We seek proposals that engage the various (and at times, conflicting) definitions of modern antisemitism and recent observations of the mainstreaming of antisemitism.