February 2013 Archives

Dozens of students packed into the Social Sciences building Tuesday, February 12th for A Day of Activism, an all-day event hosted by the Institute for Global Studies. A highlight of the event was an alumni panel luncheon featuring three Global Studies graduates who described their life after graduation and how they obtained jobs in their field. Matt Buechner, Nora Radtke, and Desiree Guida all graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2010 with majors in Global Studies. During the luncheon they offered key advice to undergraduates who will soon be looking for jobs of their own.

On On Thursday, February 7th as part of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Mass Violence Studies Workshop, Shannon Golden presented a subsection of her dissertation called "International Law in Local Context: The ICC in Northern Uganda." Golden is a PhD candidate in Sociology and recently completed 11 months of fieldwork in northern Uganda for her dissertation which explores the process of social reconstruction in post-war northern Uganda. Her presentation on Thursday considered the knowledge about and perceptions of the impact of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Lukodi, Anyadwe, and Awach, three rural villages in northern Uganda. Golden interviewed 91 conflict survivors during her fieldwork in Uganda, hoping to understand why communities have differing perceptions of the ICC and whether or not the ICC has been successful in disseminating knowledge to local communities.

Shannon Golden and Hollie Nyseth Brehm asked four leading experts to weigh in on some of the most controversial issues facing international criminal justice, including its potential interference with state sovereignty and its capacity to really curb human rights abuses. Continue reading...

The Holocaust, Genocide, and Mass Violence Studies Workshop resumed on Friday, January 25, with Hollie Nyseth Brehm's presentation on "Disaggregating Genocide in Rwanda." Brehm, a PhD candidate in Sociology and graduate human rights minor, is currently in the midst of two projects. Her dissertation investigates causes and processes of genocide on the societal, state, and international levels using detailed case studies of Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and Sudan. Brehm is also working with Professor Chris Uggen on a project exploring the age and sex distributions of participation in genocidal acts.