Schwarzman Session - Post-catastrophic Art: Staging Mass Atrocities

Council on African Studies and MacMillan Center

As contemporary film, television, live performance, and the 24-hour news cycle engages with the representation of mass atrocities, is there such a thing as neutral representation? Join performer, writer, director, and curator Dorcy Rugamba and Assistant Dean for Graduate Education, Senior Lecturer in Global Affairs, and Director of the Genocide Studies Program, David Simon in a conversation addressing the fundamental tension in post-catastrophic art: how to stage extreme violence without aestheticizing horror, violating memory, or transforming suffering into spectacle.

Situated at the intersection of performance studies, genocide studies, trauma theory, and historiography, this Session will explore a working hypothesis: each mass crime generates its own aesthetic regime, shaped by its historical structure. The form of representation is never neutral; it emerges from the “historical regime” of the crime itself.

Schwarzman Sessions are peer-led gatherings where conversations generate collaborations and move ideas into action. Because seats are limited, registrants will be automatically placed on the waitlist and will be notified via email if they are selected to participate.