This is an advanced-level course which is a research seminar designed to help students work on papers for classes, theses and individual projects. It introduces texts that have inspired theoretically oriented scholars, and seeks to show students how their own research can incorporate techniques and categories from various disciplines. The course suggests that theory is fundamental to humanistic studies. It will focus on cross-disciplinary themes and explore them through seminars. It encourages an understanding of theory, promotes interdisciplinary approaches to research, teaches critical thinking, introduces various strategies of interpretation, and devotes special attention to the development of students' original approaches.

2) 17.10 - Genocides and Modernity

• Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide, Alexander Laban Hinton. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002 (chapter 1: “Dark Side of Modernity”: 1-40).

3) 7.11 - Dehumanization

• Nick Haslam, "Dehumanization: An Integrative Review." Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 10, no. 3, 2006: 252-264.
• Giorgio Agamben, Anthropological Machine, in his, The Open: Man and Animal, trans. by Kevin Attell. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004: 33-38.

4) 14.11 - Humans and Insects

• Edmund Russell, "Anihilation (1943-1945)," in his, War and Nature. Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001: 119-144.
• Hugh Raffles, "Jews," in his, Insectopedia. New York: Pantheon Books, 2010: 141-161.

5) 21.11 - Genocides - comparative perspective

• James P. Sterba, “Understanding Evil: American Slavery, the Holocaust, and the Conquest of the American Indians”. Ethics, vol. 106, no. 2, January 1996: 424-448.
• Robert Melson, "Paradigms of Genocide: The Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and Contemporary Mass Destructions.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 548, November 1996: 156-168.

6) 28.11 - Nuclear Holocaust (Hiroshima)

• James H. Foard, "Imagining Nuclear Weapons: Hiroshima, Armageddon, and the Annihilation of the Students of Ichijo School ". Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. LXV, no. 1, 1997: 1-18.
• Peter Del Tredici, “Hibaku Trees of Hiroshima.” Arnoldia, vol. 53, no. 3, Fall 1993: 24-29.
• Fabio Gygi, "The Memory That Dare Not Speak Its Name: Memory, Monsters and Oblivion in Japanese Popular Culture." Semiotic Review, thematic issue 2: Monsters, 2016
• John Rocco Roberto, ”Japan, Godzilla and the atomic bomb. A Study into the Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Japanese Pop Culture.”
  • Robert Jacobs, The Radiation That Makes People Invisible: A Global Hibakusha Perspective. The Asia-Pacific Journal, vol. 12, issue 31, no. 1, 2014: 1-9.
  • Robert Jacobs, Nuclear Conquistadors: Military Colonialism in Nuclear Test Site Selection during the Cold War. Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, vol. 1, no. 2, November 2013: 157-177.

7) 5.12 - Genocide and Native American History/Spiritual Holocaust

• Ward Churchill, Struggle for the Land. Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide and Colonization. City Lights Books, 2002 (“Introduction” and “I am Indigenist”: 15-29; 367-402).
• Russell Means, “For America to Live, Europe Must Die” (1980)

8) 12.12 - Animal Holocaust

• Charles Patterson, Eternal Treblinka. Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust. London: Lantern Books, 2002: 223-232.
• David Sztybel, "Can the Treatment of Animals be Compared to the Holocaust." Ethics and Environment , vol. 11, no. 1, 2006: 97-132.
  • Nathan Snaza, "(Im)possible Witness: Viewing PETA'a 'Holocaust on Your Plate." Animal Liberation Philosophy and Policy Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, 2004: 1-20.

9) 19.12 - Ecocide as Environmental ”Holocaust”

• Nathalie de Pompignan, Ecocide. Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence, 2007.
• David Zierler, Invention of Ecocide. Agent Orange, Vietnam, and the Scientists Who Changed the Way We Think About the Environment. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011 (“Introduction” and chapter 2 “An Etymology of Ecocide”: 1-32).
  • Mapping Ecocide

10) 9.01 - Ecocide, Colonialism and Global Capitalism

• Franz J. Broswimmer, Ecocide. A Short History of the Mass Extinction of Species. London: Pluto Press, 2002 (“Introduction” and “The Modern Assault of Nature: The Making of Ecocide”: 1-9; 54-69).
• Damien Short, "The Genocide-Ecocide Nexus", in his, Redefining Genocide. Setller Colonialism, Social Death and Ecocide. London: ZED Books, 2016: 38-67.
• "I fight because I am alive": An interview with Davi Kopenhawa Yanomami (1991)

11) 16.01 - Genocides and Ecocides as Human Suicide (or self-extinction)

• Franz J. Broswimmer, Ecocide. A Short History of the Mass Extinction of Species. London: Pluto Press, 2002 (“The Planet as Sacrifice Zone” and “Ecocide and Globalization”: 70-102).
• Tarik Kochi & Noam Ordan, “An Argument for the Global Suicide of Humanity.” Borderlands, vol. 7, no. 3, 2008.

Richard C. Foltz, "Does Nature Have Historical Agency? World History, Environmental History, and How Historians Can Help Save the Planet"?" The History Teacher, vol. 37, no. 1, November 2003: 9-28.