| The Routledge Handbook of Genocide Studies
The field of genocide studies has experienced extraordinary growth during the past two decades. It stands today as one of the most diverse and interdisciplinary in the social sciences and humanities. Likewise, the field’s anchoring case studies have proliferated, from an initial focus on the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and the genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda, to a genuinely global framework that incorporates cases of genocide and other mass atrocities on every populated continent.
This handbook provides a cutting-edge overview of the discipline, blending theoretically grounded analysis with empirically rich illustrations to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the contemporary debates in genocide studies. Split into seven sections, the book covers:
  • Roots and Causation
  • Disciplinary Perspectives
  • Genocide through History
  • The Twentieth Century: Genocide Before the Convention
  • Genocide Since 1948
  • Interventions and Aftermaths
  • Cultural Legacies
Bringing together a diverse set of both established and up-and-coming scholars, this volume will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students who are new to the field, to educators, and to scholars, researchers, and professionals in numerous fields who seek an encompassing understanding of genocide studies.

This volume represents a major contribution to the field of genocide studies that will shape scholarship for years to come.  It combines rigorous scholarship with moral urgency.  It will be a vital resource for students, researchers, activists, policymakers, and all those committed to making ’never again’ a reality.”

Dr. James Waller, Christopher J. Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice, University of Connecticut

“This handbook truly showcases the breadth and depth of the genocide studies field. The volume contains contributions from an impressive range of scholarly disciplines, bringing unique perspectives together into an extensive collection. The chapters provide both new insights on the theoretical and legal underpinnings of genocide as well as applications to under-studied episodes of genocide. This handbook will be an invaluable tool to scholars and instructors alike.”

Francesca Parente, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of the Reiff Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Christopher Newport University

“The Routledge Handbook of Genocide Studies assembles a group of talented emerging and established scholars from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, each presenting a novel examination of a key topic in this field of study. The book offers not only a comprehensive overview of genocide studies, but also pushes it in new and critical directions. It therefore serves as a vision for the field’s future as much as an overview of its past. Readers will discover both the vibrancy of genocide scholarship and the challenges faced in efforts to acknowledge, prevent, cease, historicize, narrate, represent, and redress genocidal violence.”

Andrew Woolford, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba 

“The Routledge Handbook of Genocide Studies is an essential resource for scholars, practitioners, and students alike. Editors Jeff Bachman and John Cox have curated a comprehensive volume that covers an impressive range of topics, from the legal frameworks surrounding genocide to the social, psychological, and political dynamics that duel these atrocities. The diversity of disciplinary approaches and case studies from around the world offers readers a nuanced, multifaceted understanding of genocide, making this handbook an invaluable tool for anyone seeking to engage with both the historical and contemporary challenges of mass violence.”

Kristina Hook, PhD, Assistant Professor of Conflict Management, School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development, Kennesaw State University 

“Comprised of analytical and case study entries from emerging and established scholars, the Handbook helpfully synthesizes long-standing debates in the genocide studies literature, captures the current state of the field, and points the way forward. It will surely become a well-thumbed volume on the bookshelves of students, academics, and practitioners alike.”

Maureen S. Hiebert, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science and Research Fellow, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary 

“The Routledge Handbook of Genocide Studies is a major contribution to the field of genocide studies. This comprehensive volume brings together leading figures and specialists from around the globe to address the phenomenon of genocide from a variety of perspectives, including gender, space, political regimes, war, perpetrators, the environment, culture, propaganda, music, images and memorials. These approaches revisit classic debates and topics from new angles, opening up new fields of enquiry with original and pertinent questions. Adopting a variety of analytical scales, the book combines an ambitious geographical scope — including national cases from all continents — with a broad timeframe. This book is undoubtedly a vital contribution not only to the academic world, but also to the general public who are committed to human rights, memory and world peace.”

​Soledad Catoggio, PhD, Researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and Professor of Latin American Social History at the University of Buenos Aires
| Harry Potter and Genocide: An Introduction to Genocide Studies Through the World of Harry Potter
This book is a go-to source for educators, including those in late-primary education, secondary education, and undergraduate higher education, interested in teaching genocide studies. The author makes the subject more accessible for students, as well as for educators who do not have a background in this subarea. Each chapter includes discussion questions, research prompts, and suggestions for further reading. The book will also appeal to fans of the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter and Genocide: An Introduction to Genocide Studies Through the World of Harry Potter:
  • Uses the World of Harry Potter to introduce students to traditional, contested, and emerging Genocide Studies concepts
  • Includes various supplementary components to aid students and instructors in discussing the material presented
  • This book will be useful for educators in Language Arts, Social Studies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and more

Good Morning World (Sweden) interview about Harry Potter and Genocide
Bachman’s book offers educators and scholars interested in literature and human rights a model for harnessing the power of popular culture to introduce a new generation to contemporary geopolitical conflicts and human rights discourses. He skillfully delineates the nuances required for a solid foundation in genocide studies while drawing on well-known examples from the Harry Potter series to explain complexities and concepts. His work intentionally bridges the divide between fantasy and reality."
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--Sarah Minslow, Associate Professor of Children's and Young Adult Literature, California State University, Los Angeles
| A Modern History of Forgotten Genocides and Mass Atrocities
This is the first textbook of its kind to amass cases of genocide and other mass atrocities across the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries that have largely been pushed to the periphery of Genocide Studies or “forgotten” altogether.

Divided into four thematic sections – Genocide and Imperialism; War and Genocide; State Repression, Military Dictatorships, and Genocide; and Human-Caused Famine, Attrition, and Genocide – A Modern History of Forgotten Genocides and Mass Atrocities covers five continents, including case studies from Biafra, Yemen, Argentina, Russia, China, and Bengal. They range from the French conquest of Algeria in the mid-nineteenth century to the Yazidi genocide perpetrated by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017, and show that at times of rising authoritarianism, military conquest, and weaponization of hunger, lines between what is war and what is genocide are increasingly blurred. By including genocides and mass atrocities that are often overlooked, this volume is crucial to the ongoing debates about whether “this atrocity or that one” amounts to genocide.
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By including key points, events, terms, and critical questions throughout, this is the ideal textbook for undergraduate students who study genocide, mass atrocities, and human rights across the globe.
​A Modern History of Forgotten Genocides and Mass Atrocities offers fresh perspectives that benefit researchers, students, and practitioners working in diverse fields from peace and conflict studies and international relations, to human rights advocacy. Each chapter not only offers rigorous scholarly analysis but also includes unique introductions and resource guides, making it an invaluable reference for those seeking deeper insight into specific case studies or theoretical frameworks. By spotlighting underexplored genocides and offering practical prevention strategies, this volume sets the stage for critical new discussions in genocide scholarship and policy development.”
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--Emily Sample, Communications Officer for the International Association of Genocide Scholars and Director of Research, Evidence & Learning for the Alliance for Peacebuilding
| Genocide Studies
Pathways Ahead
In recent years, the world has been shaken by numerous events that have caused and continue to cause massive human suffering, from the COVID-19 pandemic to intrastate and interstate armed conflicts. Moreover, climate change continues to plow ahead, contributing to growing tensions, population movements, and resource scarcity. Meanwhile, the methods by which groups and group life are threatened, and the means by which violence is incited and perpetrated, continue to evolve. Such divergent crises, even when they overlap or intersect, confound definition and label. This book seeks not to answer the question, "What is genocide?" but rather "What is Genocide Studies?" When Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in 1944 he could not have foreseen what the world would look like today. Now is the time to think about current manifestations of genocide and those likely to emerge in the future

Genocide Studies: Pathways Ahead reads like a truly cohesive, consistently excellent collection, a rarity for edited volumes. The range and the theoretical boldness of its chapters is laudable, as is its multi-disciplinary character. A Ph.D. student contributes an illuminating chapter on new, alternative forms of genocidal violence, while a renowned and prolific expert offers insights into the relation of COVID to genocide; yet another chapter confronts climate change & mass violence—indeed, each chapter offers something bold and thought-provoking. Genocide Studies is exactly the sort of book that our rapidly expanding field needs about once a decade, in order to take stock and chart fresh directions.” ~John Cox, author of To Kill a People: Genocide in the Twentieth Century

"True to its title, Genocide Studies: Pathways Ahead maps out a vibrant and constantly expanding field, signposting new directions for those seeking a deeper understanding of genocide and interdisciplinary approaches to studying it. By illuminating underexplored avenues of research by some of the most exciting scholars working on these issues, this volume illustrates just how rich genocide studies has become…and how much more work there is to be done." ~Kerry Whigham, author of Resonant Violence: Affect, Memory, and Activism in Post-Genocide Societies

"Horrifyingly, acts of mass violence may be proliferating in ways we don’t anticipate or fully understand. This interdisciplinary volume is timely and significant, engaging innovative approaches that inform and unsettle the evolving field of Genocide Studies to better analyze our complex times." 
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~Eve Darian-Smith, professor and chair of global and international studies, University of California, Irvine​

In this paradigm-shifting collection, Jeffrey Bachman assembles authors who are prepared to transcend the boundaries of conventional thinking about genocide. What the 'destruction of nations' means in the age of climate change, pandemics, machine-driven killing, and other challenges to the existence and flourishing of humans is radically rethought in Genocide Studies: Pathways Ahead.." ~A. Dirk Moses, author of The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression

"Genocide Studies: Pathways Ahead challenges us to reconsider the nature of violence and to reimagine the concept of genocide itself. By pushing scholars beyond traditional discussions of mass atrocity, the authors envision bold new directions for the future of genocide studies in a rapidly changing world." 

​~Lindsey Kingston, director of the Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri​
| THE POLITICS OF GENOCIDE
From the Genocide Convention to the Responsibility to Protect (2022)
Beginning with the negotiations that concluded with the unanimous adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on December 9, 1948, and extending to the present day, the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France have put forth great effort to ensure that they will not be implicated in the crime of genocide. If this were to fail, they have also ensured that holding any of them accountable for genocide will be practically impossible. By situating genocide prevention in a system of territorial jurisdiction; by excluding protection for political groups and acts constituting cultural genocide from the Genocide Convention; by controlling when genocide is meaningfully named at the Security Council; and by pointing the responsibility to protect in directions away from any of the P-5, they have achieved what can only be described as practical impunity for genocide. The Politics of Genocide is the first book to explicitly demonstrate how the permanent member nations have exploited the Genocide Convention to isolate themselves from the reach of the law, marking them as "outlaw states."
​​In The Politics of Genocide, Jeffrey S. Bachman conducts an unsparing analysis of the United Nations (UN) Genocide Convention’s formulation in 1947-48 and subsequent selective application by the permanent members of the UN Security Council. Decrying the orchestrated 'culture of impunity for genocide,' this book is a necessary corrective to the view that the Genocide Convention has humanized world politics."
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--Dirk Moses, author of The Problems of Genocide
A rigorous and revisionist study of how framings of genocide, and applications of the relevant international law, granted effective impunity to the world's most powerful state actors -- and still do. Bachman's book is readable and accessible. It serves as an excellent complement and counterweight to standard treatments of this vital subject."

--Adam Jones, author of Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction
| THE UNITED STATES AND GENOCIDE
(Re)defining the Relationship (2017)
​​There exists a dominant narrative that essentially defines the US’ relationship with genocide through what the US has failed to do to stop or prevent genocide, rather than through how its actions have contributed to the commission of genocide. This narrative acts to conceal the true nature of the US’ relationship with many of the governments that have committed genocide since the Holocaust, as well as the US’ own actions. In response, this book challenges the dominant narrative through a comprehensive analysis of the US’ relationship with genocide.

The analysis is situated within the broader genocide studies literature, while emphasizing the role of state responsibility for the commission of genocide and the crime’s ancillary acts. The book addresses how a culture of impunity contributes to the resiliency of the dominant narrative in the face of considerable evidence that challenges it. My narrative presents a far darker relationship between the US and genocide, one that has developed from the start of the Genocide Convention’s negotiations and has extended all the way to present day, as can be seen in the relationships the US maintains with potentially genocidal regimes, from Saudi Arabia to Myanmar.
This book will be of interest to scholars, postgraduates, and students of genocide studies, US foreign policy, and human rights. A secondary readership may be found in those who study international law and international relations.
​This book...reopens the academic debate on a relatively under-researched question: the role of the United States in the perpetration and prevention of mass violence and more specifically genocide. Very critical of the American authorities, the book is nonetheless based on a solidly argumentation and, in the end, is quite convincing."

-- Julien Zarifian, Politique Americaine, 2018

Full Review:
https://journals.openedition.org/chrhc/20516
| CULTURAL GENOCIDE
Law, Politics, and Global Manifestations (2019)
Through a systematic approach and comprehensive analysis, international and interdisciplinary contributors from the fields of genocide studies, legal studies, criminology, sociology, archaeology, human rights, colonial studies, and anthropology examine the legal, structural, and political issues associated with cultural genocide. This includes a series of geographically representative case studies from the USA, Brazil, Australia, West Papua, Iraq, Palestine, Iran, and Canada.

This volume is unique in its interdisciplinarity, regional coverage, and the various methods of cultural genocide represented, and will be of interest to scholars of genocide studies, cultural studies and human rights, international law, international relations, indigenous studies, anthropology, and history.
Jeffrey Bachman and his colleagues are to be commended for this important and significant addition to our growing realization of the importance of cultural genocide in keeping with Raphael Lemkin’s own understanding that it cannot be divorced from physical annihilation or extermination. These essays encompass such diverse geographies as the United States, Brazil. Australia, West Papua, Iraq, Palestine, Canada, but further broaden our framework to include law, both nation-state and international, thus providing readers with a resource from which to carry the larger question of "what constitutes genocide" forward in this 21st century. The time has now come to revisit the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and secure an amendment to now include cultural genocide as well. This text will go a long way towards making that happen." 

​- - Steven Leonard Jacobs Professor of Religious Studies and Emeritus Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies, The University of Alabama, USA
​If the category of cultural rights has been called the 'Cinderella of the human rights family,' could the same be said about its conceptual relative, cultural genocide? That would be overstating it, although growing interest in the latter is a welcome development. Largely as a result of the return to Lemkin in genocide scholarship since the 2000s, the definitional center of gravity in the field has slowly yet surely shifted from a narrower conception of genocide as mass murder towards a broader one based on social destruction. Yet even if the cultural genocide concept has come in from the cold, it is still not enjoying a moment in the sun. Jeffrey Bachman’s edited volume, Cultural Genocide: Law, Politics, and Global Manifestations, is a testament to how far the emerging research agenda on cultural genocide has come, as well as how far it still has to go....​In sum, there is an urgent need for this book, as the emerging research agenda on cultural genocide faces a world where patterns of cultural genocide appear to be normal, even fundamental."

- - Jeff Benvenuto, Gratz College, Holocaust and Genocide Studies
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Full Review: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol15/iss3/16/