Our mission

The Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies Center (IGSC) - Rwanda is a nonprofit organization based in Kigali, Rwanda.

IGSC’s mission is to testify, to study genocide through rigorous cross-disciplinary scholarship, and to understand various mechanisms and structures of violence, with the goal of preventing genocide and mass violence.

History

Jean-Pierre Karegeye (Director of Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies, University of California at Berkeley) and Erik Ehn (Dean of the School of Theater, California Institute of the Arts) first met in Kigali in 2003. They resolved to create a space for the study of the Rwandan Genocide. The initiative has involved theater artists, filmmakers, human rights activists, politicians, survivors, religious practicioners, researchers, students and scholars from various disciplines and countries, whose practice engages questions of testimony, reconciliation, peace building, human rights and dignity.

Our goals

Encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary research on the Rwandan genocide;

Gather, organize, preserve and catalogue documentation on the Rwandan genocide

Create a library of the Rwandan genocide

Publish and disseminate scholarship on the genocide

Record and publish testimonials

Organize and host conferences, colloquia and symposia on the genocide

Organize and facilitate summer courses at the Center

Promote affiliations and collaboration with academic institutions and

professional associations, domestically and internationally

Fight revisionism and negationism