LANDAU LECTURE SERIES PRESENTS: DR. JAMES E. WALLER, COHEN PROFESSOR OF HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES

 Dr. James Waller is the Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College (NH-US).  In addition, he serves as Director of Academic Programs for the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, an international NGO devoted to atrocity prevention.  He is the author of six books, most notably his award-winning Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2^nd ed., 2007), Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide (Oxford University Press, 2016), and A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2021).  Waller has held numerous visiting professorships, most recently as an honorary visiting research professor at in the George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Justice and Security at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland (2017).  In 2017, he was the inaugural recipient of the Engaged Scholarship Prize from the International Association of Genocide Scholars in recognition of his exemplary engagement in advancing genocide awareness and prevention.  Waller has written for The Washington Post, The Irish News, and The Conversation and is frequently interviewed by broadcast and print media, including PBS, CNN, CBC, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, National Geographic, and The New York Times.

Join Dr. Waller for his talk: 

(Dinner @ 6PM, Presentation @ 6:30PM, Worship @ 8PM)

The Escalating Risk of Mass Violence in the U.S.

The escalating level of political violence in the US raises serious red flags about the erosion of democratic norms and the growing distrust of peaceful political processes. Extremist voices of antisemitism, racism, and Christian nationalism have grown even louder.  This presentation examines what happens when identity politics prevail over democracy, when a paralysis in governance leads to a political vacuum, when de facto social segregation becomes normalized, and when questions of who we are become secondary to who we are not.  There is a mountain of hard work to be done to restore trust in America’s democratic institutions, develop more inclusive narratives of memory, rebuild social cohesion, and nurture economic inclusivity.