General information

Course type AMUPIE
Module title Genocides and Ecocides: A Planetary Perspective
Language English
Module lecturer prof. dr hab. Ewa Domańska
Lecturer's email ewa@amu.edu.pl
Lecturer position professor
Faculty Faculty of History
Semester 2024/2025 (winter)
Duration 30
ECTS 7
USOS code 18-GEPP-PIE

Timetable

Wednesday, 12:30-14:00, Faculty of History, ul. Uniwersytetu Poznanskiego 7 (Morasko), room 3.104. 

First meeting: Wednesday, 23rd October

Module aim (aims)

  1. to introduce students to various cases of ecocides and genocides in contemporary history and to demonstrate the events’ interdependence
  2. to deepen students’ understanding of the diverse ways that the concept of the Holocaust has been universalized and to introduce students to its various usages (Jewish Holocaust, nuclear holocaust, animal holocaust, environmental holocaust)
  3. to encourage students to critically reflect on the problem of anthropocentrism and dehumanization through analysis of ecocides and genocides.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Advanced knowledge of English; scholarly interest in the human and non-human condition, environmental humanities, genocide studies, extinction of species, climate change and anthropogenic natural disasters.

Syllabus

  1. Studies on ecocides and genocides in the context of the ongoing discussions on the Anthropocene, environmental degradation and species extinction
  2. Differences and similarities between the concepts of genocide, ecocide, holocaust and mass killings
  3. Ecocides and genocides as results of colonialism, modernity and global capitalism
  4. Jewish Holocaust as a paradigm of modern genocide versus other types of holocaust (nuclear, spiritual, animal holocaust, environmental holocaust)
  5. Atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Vietnam War as examples of the simultaneous extermination of people and nature
  6. Genocide of humans and non-humans (the Indigenous Perspective)
  7. The humanists’ role in building a vision of the past that has survival value for the species and the planet.

Reading list