Heidelberg’s Lichtman-Behm Genocide Lecture Series will celebrate its 15th anniversary on April 1 by welcoming Dr. Hollie Nzitatira, who will deliver a keynote address on Preventing Genocide in the 21st Century.
Dr. Nzitatira is a professor of Sociology and Criminology and Director of Undergraduate Studies at The Ohio State University. She has served on a federal atrocity forecasting task force and has consulted with several other governments and the United Nations on genocide prevention. She has published over 70 articles on genocide and recently finished a book on Rwanda, where she also runs a study abroad program and studies recovery after genocide.
Taken together, Dr. Nzitatira has interviewed over 500 people about their experiences during genocide. She is also the founder and global editor-in-chief of the International Association of Genocide Scholars Policy Brief Initiative, consults for several museums and nonprofits dedicated to genocide prevention and awareness, and is the Policy Adviser for the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. In 2023, she received the International Association of Genocide Scholars Engaged Scholar Award for her work on genocide prevention and recovery.
Her Heidelberg talk explores what research tells us about preventing this grave crime and centers on the lived experience and voices of genocide survivors.
The address will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday, April 1, in Seiberling Gymnasium.
In addition, Heidelberg students are invited to attend any of a series of mini lectures:
- Experimentation of Human Subjects in Nazi Germany – Dr. Justin Pruneski (10:30-11 a.m., Seiberling)
- Risking it All: Understanding Rescue during Genocide – Dr. Hollie Nzitatira (11:20 a.m.-12 p.m., Wickham Great Hall)
- From High School to Hitler: Connections between Bullying and Genocide – Dr. Dawn Henry and Sieglinde Poelzler-Kamatali (11:20 a.m.-12 p.m., University Commons)
The series is a collaboration inspired by the life and experiences of the late Don Behm, Heidelberg class of ’51, a U.S. Army veteran, and the late Jimmy Lichtman, a survivor of the Holocaust.