Gumpert Teachers’ Workshop to Explore Transitional Justice in Aftermath of Genocide

Thursday, 03 May 2012 10:19

Written by Administrator

The Gumpert Teachers’ Workshop, “Transitional and Transformative Justice in the Aftermath of Genocide,” will be held at Ramapo College on May 17 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Trustees Pavilion.

Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in cooperation with the New Jersey State Commission on Holocaust Education and with funding from the Gumpert Foundation and the New Jersey State Department, workshop participants will learn how exploring societal experiences from Germany and Yugoslavia to Peru and Rwanda, coming to terms with and transcending their tainted pasts can enhance the teaching of the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights in the classroom.

Transitional justice is implemented by a society coming to terms with an occurrence of mass violence, e.g. genocide or the widespread abuse of human rights. It may be used in tandem with restorative measures to foster the recovery from mass violence and transgressions of human rights. As such, they are not intended to be solely punitive, but are designed to assist a society as a means of building a better future.

Professor of Political Science and International Studies Rebecca Root will deliver the keynote to introduce the topic, focusing on the efforts in Peru to right the wrongs of the Fujimori regime (1990-2000) and the nearly two-decade long struggle against the Shining Path insurgency.

Root has a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts and has recently written her first book, “Transitional Justice in Peru,” which will be out this fall from Palgrave Macmillan. At Ramapo, she teaches Political Science and International Studies, with a special focus on human rights. She also serves as convener for the minor in Human Rights and Genocide Studies.

Sharon Van Blijdesteijn of Milburn High School will deliver a hands-on presentation on how the subject matter of transitional and transformative justice can be brought into the classroom to foster student involvement and engagement.

Van Blijdesteijn has been a history teacher at Millburn High School for the last eight years where she teaches World History, Global Issues, and Economics. For the last three years she has served as the chair of the Holocaust Remembrance Day Committee and has worked to transform the event into a broadly focused Genocide Awareness Program, involving both survivor testimony and student-led discussion. Van Blijdesteijn holds a bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree (with Distinction) in Political Economy from the London School of Economics where her graduate research focused on philo-Semitism in Eastern Europe during Post-Communist Transition.

A survivor of the Rwandan Genocide will reflect on the route her country has taken since the murderous events of 1993.

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