School of Education Announces Annual Atrocity Studies Lecture on ‘Gathering Evidence of Atrocities’

David Crane L’80

The 2023 Atrocity Studies annual lecture—presented by the Syracuse University School of Education—will address how war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities are documented across the globe and the implications of this evidence for international courts and justice. The lecture features Ewa Schaller, senior program officer, American Friends of Yahad-In Unum, and David M. Crane L’80, Syracuse University College of Law Distinguished Scholar in Residence.

“Gathering Evidence of Atrocities: Investigations in the Former Soviet Union, Guatemala, Iraq, and Ukraine” takes place in person on Thursday, March 23, at 5:30 p.m. in 107 Hall of Languages. The lecture also will be live-streamed. For those participating via Zoom, registration is required in advance.

Ewa Schaller

Ewa Schaller has participated in Yahad-In Unum’s investigative work in Ukraine, Poland, and Latvia. She holds a Ph.D. in Humanities from the University of Torun, Poland. Deeply interested in the Holocaust history that has marked so much of her country’s history and identity, she joined American Friends of Yahad-In Unum in 2015.

David Crane L’80 was the founding chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone and former director of the Office of Intelligence Review and assistant general counsel of the Defense Intelligence Agency. As a College of Law faculty member, he founded Impunity Watch, an online student-run review and public service blog, and the Syrian Accountability Project, which documents war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Syrian Civil War and other conflicts, including Ukraine.

“I am happy that this lecture will set out the methodologies through which Yahad-In Unum documents atrocities,” says Professor Julia M. White, director of the School of Education’s Atrocity Studies and the Practices of Social Justice minor program. “We often hear about the causes of, responses to, and aftermaths of atrocities, but we don’t often get insight into what happens on the ground to build cases for prosecuting perpetrators of atrocities and how to use the documentation to understand how genocides and other atrocities are committed in order to prevent future crimes.”

Supported by Lauri ’77 and Jeffrey Zell ’77, the annual spring atrocity studies lectures convene speakers from disciplines at the intersection of history, memory, and international human rights. The lectures fundamentally ask how we can use the lessons of the past to inform and improve our world.

The 2023 lecture is co-sponsored by the following Syracuse University schools, colleges, departments, and programs: College of Law Journal of Global Rights and Organizations/Impunity Watch News, Office of International Programs; Lender Center for Social Justice; Jewish Studies Program; Maxwell School Anthropology Department, Citizenship and Civic Engagement Program, Political Science Department, Geography and the Environment Department, History Department, Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs Center for European Studies, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration, Social Science Ph.D. Program; and Syracuse University Humanities Center.