Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention celebrates launch/approves new minor
Binghamton University is on its way to making a concrete difference in the prevention of genocide and mass atrocity, according to a special rapporteur of the United Nations.
The University celebrated the launch of its Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) Thursday, April 20, with presentations and a reception at the SUNY Global Center in New York City.
Pablo de Greiff — United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence — was the featured speaker at the event, attended by I-GMAP supporters, U.N. officials, alumni and other invited guests.
“This is tremendously important. This is something that can have a great deal of impact on the lives of people who need it the most,” de Greiff said of the new I-GMAP. “I am absolutely delighted by this, very impressed by the institute and think it can absolutely make a difference.”
I-GMAP was established thanks to a generous gift from an anonymous donor that was facilitated by Owen Pell ’80, LLD ’11, a partner with international law firm White & Case LLP and chair of the board of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.
“Owen has been absolutely instrumental in creating this institute. It was his brainchild,” Provost Donald Nieman told the audience at the I-GMAP kickoff event.
It takes the full weight of an entire university and its many departments to address genocide and its prevention, not just a single humanities program or a social sciences program, Pell said.
“Binghamton is uniquely positioned to become a leader in scholarship, research and practice in this area,” Nieman said.
I-GMAP will bring together cutting-edge academic research and the experience and insight of practitioners to transform understanding and disrupt processes that lead to genocide and mass atrocities. It will leverage the University’s expertise in social sciences and the humanities, and its path-breaking research in global affairs.
In addition to its commitment to and emphasis on prevention, I-GMAP will employ multiple approaches to bridge the gap between scholars and practitioners and inform real-world application of the latest scholarship in this field, said the institute’s co-directors, Max Pensky, professor of philosophy, and Nadia Rubaii ’85, MA ’87, PhD ’91, associate professor of public administration.
New Minor in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention approved
A new undergraduate minor in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention has been approved as Binghamton University’s first University-wide minor. The program allows undergraduates to combine and supplement any academic major with a closely integrated set of courses exploring the historical, conceptual and practical issues and challenges surrounding the prediction and prevention of mass atrocities globally. The GMAP minor will be available beginning in fall 2018.
The GMAP Minor requires six courses, distributed as follows:
• All students must complete GMAP 480, Essentials of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (prerequisite: junior standing. Offered every fall semester. Cross listed as PHIL 480 and CCPA 480B.
• For the remaining coursework, students must satisfy the distribution requirement:
o At least one course from the “Historical and Contemporary Studies” category
o At least one course from the “Concepts and Theories” category
o At least one course from the “Practices and Methodologies” category
o The remaining two courses can be drawn from any of the three categories.
The following additional conditions apply:
• At least four of the six required courses must be upper-division.
• No more than two courses from the GMAP minor may count toward a student’s major.
• Students must earn a grade of C or better in all courses applied to the GMAP minor.
• All courses have prefixes in other academic departments and are cross-listed with the GMAP prefix. Credit toward the GMAP minor applies regardless of whether the students register with the GMAP or departmental course prefix.
For additional information, contact the co-directors of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Max Pensky, and Nadia Rubaii.