The Work of the Center

The George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights, and Conflict Prevention promotes innovative research, curricula, and pedagogies, in the hopes of reaching a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of genocide and mass violence.

The American University of Paris is the first in France to house the USC Shoah Foundation’s complete Visual History Archive, which contains over 53,000 testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Shoah and the Armenian, Rwandan, and Nanjing genocides, representing 62 countries and 39 languages. The university is making this important resource available to researchers, teachers and students, in their investigation and dissemination of new insights into the origins and aftereffects of collective hatred, fundamentalist ideologies, discrimination, and mass violence, in historical, social, and individual memory.

Our goal is to foster scholarly discussion, here and abroad, with conferences, lectures, and publications, on how individuals, communities, and governments can respond to the challenges of extreme violence in the service of enduring peace and understanding.

In order to encourage research on these questions, the Center proposes several fellowships for AUP faculty, staff and students and a research scholarship for undergraduate students.