New Books Network Adam Jones, "Sites of Genocide" (Routledge, 2022)
Nov 23, 2025
Adam Jones, a Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia Okanagan and a leading genocide studies scholar, discusses his compilation *Sites of Genocide*. He highlights the ethical challenges of documenting mass violence, especially through photography. The conversation explores how visiting sites like Morambi enriches understanding of genocides. Adam reflects on his research evolution, particularly regarding gendered violence and its application in contemporary cases like the Rohingya and Uyghurs. He emphasizes students’ roles in merging scholarship with practical interventions.
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Morambi's Unsettling Memorial
- Adam Jones describes visiting Morambi where exhumed, desiccated bodies of 1994 Rwandan genocide victims are displayed openly.
- He used a camera on his first visit as an emotional shield and later revisited without photographing to fully experience the site.
Landscapes Can Speak
- Photographs and ruins can speak across generations and reveal suppressed memory policies.
- Jones uses sites like Van's ruins to show how landscape absence signals marginalization of past atrocities.
Field's Critical Turn Is Strength
- Genocide studies shifted toward critical, reflective scholarship after the early 2010s and resists dogma due to contested definitions.
- Jones sees this plurality as strength, enabling attention to colonialism, gender, and indigenous cases.
