CCM Lecture Series Discusses Subject of Genocide
Legacy Project Event Features Rwanda Genocide Survivor – Posted 9/16/14
The Legacy Project at County College of Morris (CCM) will continue offering its historically themed discussions on campus, focusing this academic year on the subject of genocide.
The first in a series will feature guest speaker Eugenie Mukeshimana, a survivor of the Rwanda genocide and founder of the Genocide Survivors Support Network. It takes place Thursday, October 2, at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Community Center, Davidson Rooms on CCM’s Randolph campus, located at 214 Center Grove Road.
Mukeshimana, who recently testified at the United Nations, was a young adult and eight months pregnant when the genocide broke out in Rwanda. Two years after the genocide, she joined the International Aid Agencies workforce, working with communities that had been divided and disintegrated as a result of the genocide. The experience inspired her to pursue a long-term career in human services.
“The Legacy Project strives to bring important speakers to campus to discuss historical events and their present-day context,” said Professor John Soltes, one of three co-chairs of the series. “We felt it was important to have Eugenie Mukeshimana give a perspective only she can during the 20th year since the genocide in Rwanda.”
The Legacy Project will continue in the 2014-15 academic year with other lectures on the theme of genocide. For example, plans are in the works to bring a survivor of the Holocaust to campus.
The series’ first program took place last December and focused on the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement. At that event, the CCM community and others heard from speakers who talked about their personal work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., poetry in South Africa and current obstacles in American society. In April, a forum was held on women in the influential Beat Generation, a time period in American literary history that saw writers breaking from the pack and developing their own countercultural voices.
The Legacy Project, which is co-sponsored by the Bridging Cultures Initiative and Diversity Committee at CCM, is co-chaired by Professor Michelle Altieri, Communication; Professor Emily Birx, English and Philosophy; and Soltes, Communication.
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Photo: In this photo Eugenie Mukeshimana, left, a survivor of the Rwanda genocide and founder of the Genocide Survivors Support Network, speaks at the United Nations. She will be discussing the subject of genocide on Thursday, October 2, at 12:30 p.m. at County College of Morris as part of The Legacy Project.
Credit: Genocide Survivors Support Network