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Crimes Against Humanity - States and Human Rights: Lessons from Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’
Associate Professor James Brennan
Department of History
Course: HASS 092-70B
Call #: 20136
Fridays, 12:10-1:00pm, HMNSS 1218

This discovery seminar will analyze the historical, philosophical, ethical, and legal issues raised when governments commit crimes against humanity. First we will examine the genealogy of the idea of human rights, from its origins in classical thought in the ancient world through the Enlightenment to the pivotal
moments in the twentieth century in defining the concept, such as the 1948 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. Then we will examine the historical context of these particular “crimes against humanity”: the postwar Latin American crisis and the escalating polarization of society, culminating in the so-called “dirty wars” of the final decades of the past century. Subsequent weeks will be devoted to examining the consequences of these dirty wars and how society dealt with such crimes as well as the legacies of the violence and the ongoing attempts to come to terms with that violence. We will examine the case of Argentina especially and the instructor will relate his personal experiences living in Argentina in these years as well as his own research on the subject.

Reading List:

Excerpts from the following books will be read for weekly discussions:

Marguerite Feitlowitz, A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of
Torture.
John Conroy, Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture
Lawrence Weschler, A Miracle, A Universe. Settling Accounts with Torturers.
Carlos Nino, Radical Evil on Trial.
Susana Kaiser, Postmemories of Terror: A New Generation Copes with the
Legacy of the “Dirty War.”
CONADEP, Never Again: The Final Report of the Argentine National Commission
on the Disappeared. (available at www.nuncamas.org)

There will be two short writing assignments

Brief Biographical Description:

James Brennan is Associate Professor of History at UCR. His research focuses on modern Argentina. He is the author of two books and editor of two others. He is currently writing a book tentatively title, "Days of Destruction: Political Violence and Argentina’s Dirty War."