Words that Kill: An International Conference

The aim of the international conference Words that Kill, held at The American University of Paris from May 28 - 30, 2018, was to reexamine the questions of hate speech and freedom, the production and circulation of lies, and violence-inducing identity discourses. Organized by AUP’s George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention, through interdisciplinary investigation and critique, the conference aspired to foster intellectual and policy responses to injustice, exclusion, and violence.

Over the course of three days, a diverse group of researchers and academics from around the world gathered in Paris to take part in the conference. Their innovative scholarly contributions examined the multiple dimensions of the problem of hate, the production of otherness, violence and images, language, media and narratives. Panels included discussions concerning the ability of silence to enable evil to proliferate, the use and misuse of historical narratives, violence in film, President Trump’s continued twisting of truth or outright lies, hate speech and its place in the free speech movement, how otherness is manufactured in language, and many more.

Five distinguished researchers gave keynote speeches. The first, Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, gave a plenary speech titled: “How Fascism Works.” This talk elaborated on the thesis of his forthcoming book, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (Random House, Summer 2018). During his talk, Stanley pointed to dominant groups, such as men and American Christians, who use language and other means to paint themselves as “victims.” Stanley was quick to say “victimhood is tricky because it can be a powerful force for good, if you’re not in power.” He went on to give examples of Serbia as a place where this type of victimhood dialogue was in force, using the “victimhood narrative as a legitimation and justification.”

The second day of the conference began with one of the most anticipated keynotes, “Blood Coming Out of Her Wherever: Networked Misogyny and the Body,” by Sarah Banet-Weiser, Professor and Director at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and soon-to-be with the London School of Economics as Professor and Head of the Department of Media and Communications. Banet-Weiser painted a picture of how “anti-social sociability” plays a major role in the proliferation of “a level of sexual manipulation” wherein “violence might not only be tolerated, but expected, particularly in the context of popular feminist confidence where gender equality is assumed.” Benet-Weiser’s shed light on the current flood of “masculinity” studies, the concept of “the pick-up artist” and ways in which “neoliberal violence” is networked across the Internet, media and other channels.

Gérald Bronner, Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris-Diderot, member of the Academy of Technology (Académie des technologies) and member of the National Academy of Medicine (l’Académie nationale de médecine), kept the audience in rapt attention throughout his evocative keynote titled: “Croyances et narration: des liens complexes” (Beliefs and Narratives: Complex Relationships). Bronner argued for the consequences of a collective belief system and systematic errors in the reasoning that arises from supposed shared values and understandings. The award-winning professor’s thoughts carried through the conference as participants referred back to this captivating speech throughout their own panels.

The last day of the conference begun with AUP Professor Jaysen Harsin giving his keynote, “Post-Truth Politics: The Longer (Historical) and Broader (Cultural) Theory,” and ended with the words of Susan Benesch, founder and director of the Dangerous Speech Project, Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of International Service at the American University in Washington DC. Benesch’s talk titled: “Which are the Words that Kill?” circled around the concept of what sorts of language actually engendered a violent reaction. “Hatred is not the main or most relevant emotion that lowers emotional barriers to violence,” she said, “it’s actually fear.”

These thought-provoking keynotes and engaging panels sparked discussion throughout the three-day conference about our current troubled historical moment, where toxic discourses are being mobilized for political ends. They participated in the growing concern and debate over the perilous effects of post-truth regimes, false news and lying in politics which this conference sought to engage. It was the hope of the participants that, in some way, their dialogue would positively affect a poisoned political discourse and daily social interaction, whether online or face-to-face. In understanding how social violence is bred by the fabrication of an “other,” how myth of racial purity and the use of libel, as well as falsehoods and outright lies, all contribute to foment hate and generate the social conditions necessary for mass violence to occur.

Panelist chairs included: Annette Wieviorka, CNRS-SIRICE- Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne; Brian Schiff, The American University of Paris; Marie Regan, The American University of Paris; Tal Bruttmann, EHESS; Susan Perry, The American University of Paris; Renée Poznanski, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Claudia Roda, The American University of Paris; Philip Golub, The American University of Paris; Pauline Peretz, Université Paris 8; Laetitia Zecchini, CEIAS-CNRS-EHESS; Constance Pâris de Bollardière, The American University of Paris; Waddick Doyle, The American University of Paris; Lissa Lincoln, The American University of Paris; Eva Weil, CNRS-SIRICE Université Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne.

Watch the Keynote Speeches from the Words That Kill Conference

About 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 54,000 testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Shoah, the Armenian, the Rwandan, the Guatemalan and the Cambodian genocides, the Nanjing massacres and other atrocities, representing 64 countries and 42 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.

The goal of the Center 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.