27839 research outputs found
Sort by
Episode 37: First They Killed My Father (2017) & The Gate (2014) (Guest: Melanie O’Brien)
No full textThis episode looks at two films about the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s: First They Killed My Father (dir. Angelina Jolie), and The Gate (or Les Temps des Aveux) (dir. Régis Wargnier). First They Killed My Father is based on the memoir of Loung Ung, who was a five-year-old girl when the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975. Loung Ung was forced to flee Phnom Penh, Cambodia\u27s capital, with her family. Loung Ung’s parents were killed, and Loung Ung was separated from her siblings; after surviving in a forced labor camp, Loung Ung was forced to become a child soldier. The Gate tells the story of acclaimed French anthropologist, Francois Bizot, who was imprisoned and tortured by the Khmer Rouge for three months in 1971 on suspicion of being a CIA spy, and who later became the French embassy’s translator and intermediary with the Khmer Rouge until he was forced to flee the country. The films, which are both based on personal memoirs, provide a harrowing account of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. I\u27m joined by Dr. Melanie O’Brien, Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia (UWA) Law School and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Dr. O\u27Brien is a leading expert on genocide and international law, and is the author of acclaimed scholarly books and articles on the subject.
Guest: Melanie O Brien
Dr. Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law & Deputy Head of School (Research) at the University of Western Australia Law School; and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). Dr O\u27Brien was a 2023-24 Visiting Professor at the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota, USA; and is a Visiting Scholar at the Human Rights Center, Law School, University of Minnesota. The International Criminal Court has cited Dr. O’ Brien’s her work on forced marriage, and she has been an amica curia before the ICC. She has been an expert consultant for multiple UN bodies, including the UN Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran. Dr O\u27Brien is the recipient of the Aurora Mardiganian Commemorative Medal from the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute for her work on the Armenian Genocide and Nagorno-Karabakh. Dr O\u27Brien is widely consulted by global media for her expertise on international criminal law. She has conducted fieldwork and research across six continents; and is part of the Ukraine Peace Settlement Project. Dr O\u27Brien is a member of the WA International Humanitarian Law Committee of the Australian Red Cross. She was a 2022 Research Fellow at the Sydney Jewish Museum & a 2023 Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Loughborough, UK. Dr O\u27Brien is the author of Criminalising Peacekeepers: Modernising National Approaches to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (Palgrave, 2017) and From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process through a Human Rights Lens (Routledge, 2023, Australian Legal Research Awards finalist).
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction3:42 Background on the Khmer Rouge 7:42 Khmer Rouge philosophy and tactics11:50 Forced marriage15:37 The role of propaganda24:58 The use of child soldiers27:48 Life after genocide31:42 First They Killed My Father and the Cambodian genocide38:08 Francois Bizot and Comrade Duch40:10 The French embassy in Phnom Penh43:52 The portrayal of Comrade Duch46:06 The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia55:06 Why Cambodia was a genocide1:00:16 The Khmer Rouge’s destruction of culture1:07:21 Transitional justice in Cambodia1:10:33 The role of memoirs after genocide
Further Reading:
Becker, Elizabeth, When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution (1988)
Bizot, Francois, The Gate: A Memoir (2004)
Killean, Rachel & Moffett, Luke, “What’s in a Name? ‘Reparations’ at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,” 21(1) Melbourne J. Int\u27l Law 115 (2020)
O’Brien, Melanie, “Le Temps des Aveux/The Gate” (review), Law & Culture (2016)
O’Brien, Melanie, From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process through a Human Rights Lens (Routledge Press 2023)
Sperfeldt, Christoph, “Collective Reparations at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,” 12 (3), Int’l Criminal L. Rev 457 (2012)https://scholarship.shu.edu/law-on-film-s03/1006/thumbnail.jp
2025 Faculty Summer Seminar - The Living Word of God: Still Alive Today?
No full textAbout the 2025 Faculty Seminar - p.6
Josephine De Vito - p.10 Understanding the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Holy Scriptures
Elizabeth Brewer Redwine - p.13 Reading and Listening in Difficult Times: Classroom Strategies
Judith Stark - p.18 Beyond Genesis 1-3: The Many Ways to Conceptualize Nature
Gloria Thurmond - p.25 Study to Show Thyself Approved
John P. Wargacki - p.29 Jacob Marley as \u27Intercessor in Ebenezer Scrooge\u27s Journey of Transformation in Charles Dickens\u27s A Christmas Carol
Seton Hall University Statement: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition – p.32
About the Authors -p.3
DIPL 6277 Global Health, Bioterrorism, and International Security
Get PDFThis course is an interdisciplinary survey that focuses on the issues of global health security. As shown in the COVID-19 pandemic, international trade and travel threaten epidemics by transporting and spreading infectious disease globally at jet speed. The growing risk of exposure to infectious diseases, coupled with the threat of intentional release of dangerous pathogens, creates a situation in which health and security are interacting with greater frequency and intensity. This development parallels efforts to redefine the concept of security to encompass new global challenges such as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). To what extent does health fit this new security agenda? What are the major linkages between health and security? Should NCDs be framed as problems that demand response from the national security community? How does the securitization of health shape the governance of particular health issues? Conversely, how do the discussions and debates on health security transform our understanding of security or insecurity in the contemporary world? In order to address these questions, it is important to familiarize key concepts, theories, and debates involved in the study of global health security
DIPL 6253 WB Civil Conflict and Development
Get PDFThis course addresses one of the central challenges in post-conflict recovery: how to rebuild a viable economy that is able to meet the basic needs of the state and society. This course examines the economic consequences of civil wars and how states and international organizations have responded to the challenges of rebuilding post-conflict societies in light of weak national political institutions and economies with limited options. Students will appraise the possible tradeoffs that exist in forming governments that can protect property rights, reconstituting viable economies, and promoting peace across national territories. In evaluating the role of international actors (through foreign aid and the role of the IMF and World Bank), our aim is to examine approaches (prior and current) so as to develop and propose more optimal policies that mitigate these tradeoffs
