Adam Muller: "The 'Intent to Destroy' and the Case for Indigenous Genocide in Canada"

Thu. Feb. 26 11:30 AM - Thu. Feb. 26 12:45 PM
Contact: Kevin Walby 204-786-9105 k.walby@uwinnipeg.ca
Location: 3D01, University of Winnipeg

This talk examines one of the main difficulties facing those making the case that settler-colonial genocide has occurred in Canada: the apparent lack of clear evidence of genocidal intent on the part of perpetrators. As part of this examination, the centrality of intent to the genocide concept, as well as to the concept's formulation in international law, will be discussed. At the same time, clarification will be provided concerning the true object of genocidal destruction - human collectivities, and not human lives per se.

Dr. Adam Muller is an interdisciplinary scholar and associate professor in the University of Manitoba’s Department of English, Film, and Theatre, where he studies the representation of war and mass atrocity. He is the editor of Concepts of Culture: Art, Politics, and Society (2005), as well as co-editor of Fighting Words and Images: Representing War Across the Disciplines (2012) and The Idea of a Human Rights Museum (2015), the first book-length critical analysis of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. He is a Research Associate at the Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice Studies and a Senior Research Fellow at the U of M’s Centre for Defense and Security Studies, and he has twice held Hess Fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.