Time Schedule:
Virginia Van Dyke
POL S 337
Seattle Campus
Comparative study of collective violence in modern states with emphasis on riots and pogroms. Readings include case materials drawn from Russian pogroms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Hindu-Muslim riots in modern India, and race riots in the United States and Great Britain. Offered: jointly with JSIS B 337.
Class description
Description. Interethnic conflict and collective violence are integral parts of our world. We are confronted daily with news of such struggles from Africa to Eastern Europe. In spite of optimistic predictions that 'primordial attachments' such as religion or ethnicity would fade away, such identities have become increasingly politically salient and have become the fault lines around which violence is organized. This course will explore theoretical perspectives on and explanations for interethnic violence, particularly riots and pogroms. We will examine the role of the individual, the role of the state and its agents, including the police, and the function of institutionalized types of 'riot systems.' The course will cover varying types of conflict from different world regions including, but not limited to, communal conflict in India, intertribal conflict in Africa, police/Black tension in Great Britain, and anti-Semitic violence in Nazi Germany and Poland. The challenge will be to move beyond 'ancient hatreds' as a catch-all explanation for contemporary collective violence. Texts. Brass, Paul R., Theft of an Idol: Text and Context in the Representation of Collective Violence; Browning, Christopher, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland; Buford, Bill, Among the Thugs; Gourevitch, Philip, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda; and Keith, Michael, Race, Riots and Policing: Lore and Disorder in a Multi-Racist Society.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
Assignments. There will be a final exam and term paper. In addition each student will be required to keep a journal in which the student responds to the readings.
