Joyce Apsel and Ernesto Verdeja, “Genocide Matters: Ongoing Issues and Emerging Perspectives” (Routledge, 2013)

The field of genocide studies is surprisingly young. As Sam Totten and I discussed in an interview earlier this year, it dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s. That makes the field about 25 years old. That’s about the time it takes for a generation of scholars to lay out their ideas and to train new researchers to follow in their footsteps. And, as it usually goes, that new generation often takes issue with past assumptions and conclusions.

It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that a variety of debates have emerged in the past decade. Scholars have clashed over the canon of genocide studies, about the degree to which the Holocaust should be viewed as an ideal type against which other genocides are measured, over the proper balance between academic research and activism and many other issues.

Joyce Apsel and Ernesto Verdeja have taken this opportunity to compile a survey of the state of the field at this contested time. Their book Genocide Matters: Ongoing Issues and Emerging Perspectives (Routledge, 2013) offers its contributors a chance to chart the future course of the field. And it offers its readers the opportunity to engage these debates themselves.

I spoke with Ernesto about all of this in today’s interview, which was recorded earlier this fall. He’s an engaging speaker with lots to say on the topic. I hope you enjoy the interview.

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