LITERATURE + LECTURES

During April, Holocaust Museum Houston presents Genocide Awareness Month, working to raise awareness about genocide and actions individuals and groups can take to end genocide. Several genocides began in April or have a major anniversary in the month. For this reason, many organizations and institutions around the world have set aside April to be a month of genocide awareness and action against genocide.Genocide Awareness Month

The Museum has many activities and programs for all ages during the month. The theme for genocide awareness month is learning to be an upstander – a person who stands up for others and takes actions on their behalf. Thirty activities – one for each day of the month – are being highlighted as positive steps individuals and groups can take to stop genocide starting today.

Internationally renowned genocide scholar Samuel Totten (pictured above) will discuss the history and ongoing efforts to combat genocide in the public lecture Genocide Yesterday and Today, scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, 2011 beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Theater at Holocaust Museum Houston.

Totten has taught at the University of Arkansas since 1987. He recently returned from interviewing Darfuri victims of genocide, as well as observing the January referendum in South Sudan.

Totten is co-founding editor of Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal (University of Toronto Press) and has served as a co-editor from 2005 to the present. He is also a co-editor of the Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies published by the Centre for Conflict Management, at the National University of Rwanda.

During the summer of 2004, Totten served as one of the 24 investigators with the U.S. State Department's Atrocities Documentation Project, interviewing black African refugees along the Chad/Sudan border to collect data to ascertain whether genocide had been perpetrated in Darfur.

Totten was a Fulbright Scholar at the National University of Rwanda from January 2008 to July 2008. As a Fulbright Scholar, he developed a new master's degree in genocide studies that is currently offered by the university.

This event is presented as part of HMH’s activities commemorating April as “Genocide Awareness Month” and is generously underwritten by Elizabeth and Alan Stein.

Tickets are $4 per person for Holocaust Museum Houston members and $5 for non-members. Seating is limited, and advanced registration is required. For more information, call 713 942-8000, ext. 105 or e-mail  education@hmh.org.