Exhuming the Past: The Politics of Mass Graves in 20th Century Eurasia

Professors Bert Patenaude, Amir Weiner, and Norman Naimark will present their research on three 20th century political massacres and their burial sites: Katyn, Western Ukraine, and Srebrenica. These locations will be discussed to reflect on the themes of mass violence, contested memory, and the role of forensic investigation in political and historical reckoning. These sites and their histories did not fade from public view after the violence and gunfire ceased. In all three cases, mass graves and exhumations became sites of historical conflict, political contestation, and legal reckoning. Whether under Stalinist terror, or ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, these sites expose how regimes use burial sites to conceal atrocities and how later exhumations can sometimes serve as acts of resistance, remembrance, and justice.

Thsi event is part of the "Exhuming the Past: Memory, Politics, and Ecology of Mass Graves in 20th Century Eurasia” workshop series sponsored by the Stanford History Department.

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