December event: Legacies of Mass Atrocities

The Quest for Justice for the Disappeared in Argentina

As part of the Seminar Series "Genocide, Justice, and Human Rights," funded by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and CUNY-Queensborough. Co-sponsored by the Historical Memory Project of John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Please join the Historical Memory Project for a historic conversation about the legacies of mass atrocities and the quest for justice in Argentina. Between 1976 and 1983, over 30,000 social justice activists, labeled the “internal enemy” by the military dictatorship, were forcibly disappeared. Over three decades later, local human rights trials are being carried out to bring the institutions and people responsible for these atrocities to justice. But can justice ever be achieved for the Mothers of the Disappeared? What effects do these trials have in breaking the silence over the past? Can local systems of justice redress crimes against humanities committed by states?

Wednesday, December 5, 2012, 6-9pm

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

524 West 59th Street

New Building

Conference Room 9.64

Please visit the Historical Memory Project Facebook page for more information, and to let us know you're coming.

Spread the word about this important event ~ please share the attached flyer!

*This Series has been made possible by a generous grant from the

National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or

recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent

those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.*

Live Webcast at: http://www.jjay.cuny.edu.

Mil gracias for your support of historical memory!

Marcia Esparza & the Historical Memory Project

More info at:

Facebook: Historical Memory Project

Twitter: @HMPNYC

November event: Legacies of Mass Atrocities

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Sexual Violence Against Women in Guatemala

Presenters:

> Sonja Perkič

Independent consultant, Public Ministry of Guatemala

investigation of human rights violations in the context of internal armed conflict.

> Marcia Esparza

Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, John Jay College, founder and director of the Historical Memory Project.

> Kyoo Lee

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, John Jay College, Women's Studies Certificate Program / Faculty Fellow, The Center for Place, Culture and Politics, The Graduate Center.

This event has been co-Sponsored by the Gender Studies Program, Sociology Department, M.A. Program in International Crime & Justice, B.A. Program in International Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It has also been Live Webcast on the John Jay College website: www.jjay.cuny.edu

Our funding

• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship, 2011 – 2012
• Ford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2010 – 2011
• Office for the Advancement of Research, John Jay College
• Professional Staff Congress, CUNY (PSC–CUNY)

Who we work with

• Higher education institutions & NGOs around the world, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Guatemala
• The Public Ministry of Guatemala
• National Police Archives, Guatemala
• Pop No’j Red Maya, Guatemala
• Genocide Studies Centre at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Why we do it

Political volatility and undemocratic practices in Latin America, as in other regions, combine with understaffed, under-resourced archives, which threaten to erase the historical materials showing people’s lived experiences of terror. With these materials buried, the historical memory of the regional conflicts will be shaped to exclude them, reshaping history, further intensifying and reinforcing inequalities.

What we do

HMP is an initiative that documents and advocates for truth, memory, and justice for victims of human rights violations in Latin America. We are a learning resource, researching and disseminating multimedia information about human rights abuses and militarization, during and in the aftermath of conflict. We pay special attention to mass violence perpetrated against indigenous peoples.

We engage students of state violence and mass atrocities, policymakers, academics, and human rights activists in bearing witness, with survivors, to relevant historical events and justice processes across regions and nations. Thus, HMP offers a comparative lens on violence and genocide. Our case studies and materials include Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala, and we are in the process both of expanding and cataloguing the HMP Archives. At the same time, we are digitizing our growing collection for our rich multimedia website, through which students, academics, and activists from around the world will interact with historical memory using the latest participatory technology.

We also involve students in our projects and events, to the effect of inspiring young scholars to work on human rights research and advocacy, including the elaboration of a network of Latin America archivists. In Fall 2013, HMP will begin to host Memory Lab, an opportunity to interact with a depository of documents in New York City, for the sake of their preservation and continued use in research and truth-telling efforts. Through the HMP Blog, we also monitor and report on criminal justice processes based on developments in ongoing human rights trials, in addition to providing access to some of our collection.