FRESNO — Dr. Bedross Der Matossian will present a lecture entitled “‘It Never Happened’: Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century” at 7:00PM on Friday, September 29, 2023, in the Smittcamp Alumni House on the Fresno State campus. The presentation is part of the Fall Lecture Series of the Armenian Studies Program. Support for the presentation is provided by the Florence Elaine Hamparson Fund.
Throughout the twenty-first century, genocide denial has evolved and adapted with new strategies to augment and complement established modes of denial. In addition to outright negation, denial of genocide encompasses a range of techniques, including disputes over numbers, contestation of legal definitions, blaming the victim, and various modes of intimidation, such as threats of legal action. Arguably the most effective strategy has been denial through the purposeful creation of misinformation. By concentrating on factors such as the role of communications and news media, global and national social networks, the weaponization of information by authoritarian regimes and political parties, court cases in the United States and Europe, freedom of speech, and postmodernist thought, Der Matossian will discuss how genocide denial is becoming a fact of daily life in the twenty-first century.
Bedross Der Matossian is a Professor of Modern Middle East History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Born and raised in the Old City of Jerusalem he is the author, editor, and co-editor of seven books. His latest edited volume Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century was published by University of Nebraska Press (2023).
Copies of Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century are available to purchase from Amazon.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The Smittcamp Alumni House is located at 2625 E. Matoian Way on the Fresno State campus. Free parking is available in Fresno State Lots P1 and P2 (parking permits are not required on Friday evenings). Enter the campus at Shaw and Maple Aves. and turn right onto Matoian Way (first stop sign). The Smittcamp Alumni House is the second building on the left.
The lecture will be livestreamed at: https://bit.ly/armenianstudiesyoutube.
For information about upcoming Armenian Studies Program presentations, please follow us on our Facebook page, @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState or at the Program website, https://fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.
