About this Program
In an era of rising political polarization and identity-driven conflict, how resistant is the United States to the threat of genocidal violence? What lessons can be drawn from societies that have experienced genocide—and how might deep-rooted cultural narratives around honor, rage, and revenge make even established democracies vulnerable?
Join the San Diego World Affairs Council (SDWAC) and the SDSU Center for War and Society for a vital conversation with Professor Alexander Hinton, a leading expert on genocide, cultural violence, and white power movements in the United States. Hinton is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University. His recent book, It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US, explores how seemingly stable societies can spiral into violence.
The discussion will be moderated by Grace Cheng, Founding Director of the Center for Human Rights at the College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University.
This event confronts difficult but necessary questions about the fragility of democracy, the power of ideology, and the warning signs we must not ignore.
Free to the public Pre-registration required. For info on event parking at the SDSU campus please click here.
About the Speakers
Alexander Hinton
Alex Hinton is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention, and the award-winning author or editor of seventeen books, including, most recently, It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US (NYU, 2021), Anthropological Witness: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Cornell, 2022) and Perpetrators: Encountering Humanity’s Dark Side (Stanford, 2023). Most recently, he received the American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology in the Media Award in 2022, a 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Network of Genocide Scholars, and a H. F. Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar Award in 2024.
Grace Cheng (Moderator)
Grace Cheng is the Founding Director of the Center for Human Rights at the College of Arts and Letters, San Diego State University, where she also teaches for the Political Science and History Departments. Dr. Cheng's writings and research interests concern questions of human rights, self-determination, sovereignty, migration and displacement. Besides her writings on these topics, including Nationalism and Human Rights: In Theory and Practice in the Middle East, Central Europe, and Asia Pacific (2012), she is involved deeply in scholar-practitioner projects to integrate human rights principles and redress for past abuses in efforts to re-establish peace, including as a member of the Board of Advisors of the West African Transitional Justice Centre (Nigeria) and Forced Migration Studies Center for Afghanistan (Washington, DC).
Sponsors
This program is presented in partnership with the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) and Bellwether International through the Engage America Series. This national initiative brings together World Affairs Councils, think tanks, foundations, NGOs, corporations, and occasionally government agencies to host timely conversations on pressing global issues.
This particular lecture is made possible by a grant from Bellwether International, supporting efforts to explore and promote strategies for disrupting the cycles of genocide.
Additional sponsors include our educational partners at the SDSU Center for Human Rights and the SDSU Center for War and Society.
