Admission requirements
Admission to the Master International Relations, track International Studies. Other students who are interested in this course, please contact the co-ordinator of studies.
Course description
How do individuals, communities, societies and states come to terms with atrocities in the aftermath of political violence and massive violation of human rights? Processes of suffering, remembering and forgetting need to be addressed from an international political dimension. This course examines the links between memory and trauma related to global conflict. It aims to give an understanding of the history of human rights, the emergence of transitional justice, and the uses of collective memory. It will also explore artistic and other types of representations of violent pasts during the second half of the twentieth century. We will address these issues through the discussion of books and articles that focus on Latin America (the cases of Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile), Canada, Europe (especially Germany after the Holocaust), South Africa and Cambodia. Thus, we will also study different kinds of sources (memorials, drawings, photography, films, and graphic novels) with the aim of looking at the relationship between collective memories and representations of difficult pasts.