- About 40 students and young researchers on education will attend the course “Genocides and mass atrocities. Teaching and pedagocical tools on history and memories “organized by the European Observatory on Memories of the UB Solidarity Foundation, the Shoah Memorial, and the research group Teaching of History, Geography and other Social Sciences of the University of Barcelona;
- Annette Wieviorka, Johann Chapoutot Deren and Jean Arnault are some of the 14 speakers of this seminar to be held on May 11 and 12 at the University of Barcelona and the Montjuic Castle.
A group of 40 students and education researchers will receive specialized training in teaching concepts and tools related to the history and memories of genocide and mass atrocities. The course will be held on May 11 and 12 in Barcelona and is coordinated by Jordi Guixé Corominas, director of the EUROM, Bruno Boyer, of the Shoah Memorial, and Concha Fuentes, of the research group Didactics of History, Geography and other Social Sciences (DHiGeCs) of the Faculty of Education of the University of Barcelona. Tthe two-day course will be taught by experts from 14 universities in France and Spain, and will be held at the University of Barcelona and the Montjuïc Castle.
The program emphasizes teaching methods for the prevention of racism, anti-Semitism and extreme violence from a series of presentations on the Holocaust, the crimes against humanity in Latin America, the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, the massacres and violence in Spain during Franco’s regime, and mass atrocities during the Balkan wars. It will also discuss the role of museums and public spaces in the management of these memories, as well as the use of technological tools in teaching recent history.
At the opening session, Yves Ternon, of the University of Paris IV – Sorbonne, and Jose Luis Perez Triviño, of the University Pompeu Fabra, will make a comparative approach on genocide, mass atrocities, massacres and crimes against humanity. Then, Johann Chapoutot, author of “Blood Law” (Yad Vashem Prize 2015) discuss racism and anti-colonialism. Professor David Bondia, of the University of Barcelona, will introduce the crimes against humanity in the repressive regimes in Latin America. The Holocaust will be treated by Annette Wieviorka, a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and author of the books “1945. La découverte” and “Auschwitz explained to my daughter“. Josep Calvet, a researcher at the University of Lleida, will discuss the relationship between Spain and the Holocaust, and Antonio Miguez, University of Santiago de Compostela, will explain the massacres and violence of the Franco’s regime between 1936 and 1952. Tal Bruttmann, of the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences of the CNRS, will introduce the history of the Nazi concentration camps. The wars in the Balkans and the genocide of Srebrenica will be treated by the historian Jean Arnault Deren, author of several books on this topic. Florent Piton, a specialist in African History at the University of Paris 7, will expose the genocide of Tutsis.
The second day will begin with a visit to the mass grave of Fossar Pedrera and to the Montjuïc Castle, guided by historian Ricard Conesa, the Euromar. Professor Marta Simó, of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, will presente her research on education and learning about the Holocaust. The teaching and educational tools to explain the genocide to secondary scholars will be introduced by professors Joaquim Prats and Concha Fuentes, members of the DHiGeCs. Their presentation will be complemented by a panel on technological tools for the education of memories by the researcher Miquel Albert Tarragona, also from DHiGeCs. The seminar will end with a presentation on the role of museums in memorial management, by Victoria López-Benito, of the University of Zaragoza.