Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Mass Atrocity | Atrocity Studies Lecture

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

Professor James Waller will discuss internal and external factors that can lead ordinary people to commit mass atrocities if left unchecked and unexamined.

By examining these forces, Waller argues that no country is immune to the potential for atrocity crimes and that this awareness can facilitate atrocity prevention.

About Professor James Waller

James Waller is the inaugural Christopher J. Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice and Director of the Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs for the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut.

He is the author of six books, including the award-winning Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford, 2007), as well as Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide (Oxford, 2016) and A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland (Oxford, 2021).

Presented by the minor in Atrocity Studies and the Practices of Social Justice, supported by Lauri ’77 and Jeffrey Zell ’77.