Murray State University Tracey Newport recently displayed his historical research project at last week’s Posters-at-the-Capitol event in Frankfort.
He and faculty mentor Dr. David Pizzo speak with Tracy Ross on Sounds Good about Newport’s paper, "The Evil That Men Do: Comparative Genocide in the 20th Century."
Newport says he chose genocide to research because it’s a multi-faceted topic; beyond the initial atrocities, there are sociological, economic and political factors to consider.
He says he chose to avoid commonly known events including Hitler’s reign and the Rwandan Genocide as those are more extreme examples.
One of his researched events, the Armenian Genocide, is something Newport says still has ramifications. He says the United States doesn’t officially recognize the event as a genocide, something he theorizes is an attempt to maintain positive international relations.
Pizzo cites the Bosnian Genocide as another example.
Newport says his paper identifies four main precursors to a potential genocide event: social Darwinism, religion, territorial conflict and previous conflict. Those concepts show up frequently in his research.
Pizzo says the entire work should be up online in the next couple weeks, along with other research projects included at this year’s Posters-at-the-Capitol event.
