Instructions for Submitting Abstracts

Theme Description

The Center for Genocide and Human Rights Research in Africa and the Diaspora will host its 11th annual conference at NEIU on March 5th, 6th and 7th, 2025. It will focus on the post-genocide processes of communal regeneration and social transformation. We are interested in exploring what it means to heal from genocide. In 2002, the United Nations Economic and Social Council formalized the Basic Principles for Restorative Justice as a step-by-step plan designed to promote victim-centered healing and accountability. There is a preponderance of literature that has brought attention to the limitations of Truth and Reconciliation processes across a range of post-genocidal and post-conflict societies. Governments may approach the task instrumentally, without acknowledging the historical depth of conditions giving rise to violence. Legal and political institutions may eclipse the experiences of survivors and victims or erase them altogether by silencing memory through intimidation and propaganda, or simply through an eagerness to forget the past and regenerate the economy. 

We welcome submissions of critical work from scholars, researchers, and students from various disciplines whose research explores the aftermath of genocide.

The submissions should be grounded in seeking answers to or offer perspectives on these critical questions: How do survivors reclaim their agency and cultivate resilience in the wake of devastation? How do they lay to rest their grief due to the absence of those who have been lost to violence and reclaim the capacity for joy? 

  • How do survivors reclaim their agency and cultivate resilience in the wake of devastation? How do they lay to rest their grief due to the absence of those who have been lost to violence and reclaim the capacity for joy? 
  • How can the goal of reconciliation be balanced with demands for retribution? How can conversations within civil society reach people in affected communities? How is it possible to reckon with the pain of the past without repeating the cycle of trauma? 
  • How does geopolitical framing obscure certain conflicts, on the one hand, or leverage genocide as a political resource, on the other? How do the divisions leading to genocidal violence persist, and how might they be addressed in policy and practice without exacerbating tensions? What have been the implementation challenges of restorative justice processes within contexts, and what generalizations may be drawn from these cases? What are the sociopolitical effects of displacement following mass violence, and what is the role of the diaspora in reconciliation efforts? How can state institutions facilitate peace through economic redistribution? 

We also invite pragmatic strategies for organizing local efforts to prevent pre-genocidal conflict, document human rights violations, and promote psychosocial healing and sociopolitical transformation. 

If your work aligns with the conference theme, please submit your proposal/abstract. Abstracts should be 250 words summarizing the purpose of your paper/research, methodology/conceptual framework, and findings/analysis. As the only higher education genocide studies center in the U.S. focused on Africa and its diaspora, the GHRAD Center particularly encourages submissions about and from the Global South.

PRESENTATION TOPICS

Suggested presentation topics include:

  • Truth and Reconciliation in politics and law 
  • Restorative justice initiatives and outcomes 
  • The victim-perpetrator dichotomy and mutual humanization
  • Silence as a tool of post-genocidal politics 
  • Defining resilience and reconciliation 
  • Engaging the UN system to address genocide 
  • Mental health and cultural tools for healing 
  • The public health impact of forced migration 
  • Gendered healing practices 
  • The impact of intergenerational cycles of violence on youth 
  • Oral history and archival construction 
  • The therapeutic power and pitfalls of storytelling 
  • Memorialization and education 
  • Power-sharing and the reappropriation of land and resources
  • Decolonization, genocide, and migration 
  • Neocolonialism and humanitarian intervention 
  • The impact of mass atrocities on economic development 
  • The impact of climate change on post-genocide governance 
  • Genocide and displacement as complex emergencies 
  • The role of religion and theology during and after conflict 
  • Perceptions of genocide through emerging technologies 
  • Ubuntu and the work of (re)building social networks 

Submit a proposal

To have a presentation considered for the 2025 Genocide and Human Rights Research in Africa and the Diaspora (GHRAD) Conference, please use the Call For Papers Submission Form.

PROPOSAL DEADLINE

Nov. 15, 2024, 6 p.m. CST. Acceptance notification by Dec. 15, 2024. 

Questions

If you have any questions about the call for papers, please email us at humanrights@neiu.edu.