History 444 - Ethnic Cleansing in Hist

[ EU/AS/US/TE/TS/C] What is ethnic cleansing? How did various historical actors (from medieval Mongols to modern colonial settlers to nationalists and Communists) decide to remove – and sometimes exterminate – entire peoples? Did ethnic cleansing exist throughout human history, or is it a distinctly modern phenomenon? How did specific historical processes, such as settler colonialism, state and nation-building, ideological and military conflicts contribute to ethnic cleansing? Finally, what is the relationship between modern human sciences and population politics and ethnic cleansing? This research seminar will explore different instances of ethnic cleansing and discuss under what circumstances peoples are unmixed. We will study a variety of materials, such as witness accounts, victim and perpetrator narratives, official reports, as well as analytical and historical studies of ethnic cleansing. Each student will select a case study and write a research paper of 25 pages.

Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Professor Glebov.