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Genocide lecturer calls on students |
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Tuesday, 13 November 2007 |
 | Hudnall
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by JULIA HARR
Lifestyles Reporter
After 30 hours of travel beginning in central Europe and losing luggage along the way, Evelin Lindner finally made it to Boone in time for a potluck dinner celebrating her arrival.
Lindner will present “Genocide, Humiliation and Conflict,” a program about exploring how to avoid and resolve conflict through the dynamics of human dignity and humiliation Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Belk Library & Information Commons. The event is free and open to the public.
“I
think this woman has a rare quality in helping others understand a way
to find peace,” Appalachian State University history professor and
program organizer Amy Hudnall said. “The more I can help her spread her
message the better.”
The founder of the Network for Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies,
Lindner has a lot of experience in peace studies and human
communication.
She is the author of “Making Enemies: Humiliation and International
Conflict.” She also has a degree in medicine and a doctorate in
psychology. She has taught as a guest professor around the world in
countries including Japan, Norway, the United States and Germany.
Hudnall met Lindner through the network at a conference in Costa Rica and has maintained contact since.
Lindner describes herself and Hudnall as “ild sjel,” Norwegian for “fire soul.”
“Norwegian has different words for fire,” Lindner said. “‘Ild’ is the nurturing type, the kind in a fireplace.”
Watching her parents suffer their entire lives because of human conflict instilled a deep need for resolution in Lindner.
Her parents were displaced from their home in Silesia to what became West Germany during World War II.
“I was born into a displaced family,” Lindner said. “My interest comes
from the suffering of my parents. The trauma never left. They were
never able to live a normal life.”
She said her parents couldn’t trust the earth and detached themselves from it by becoming highly religious.
Lindner will present ideas on how to communicate better while
recognizing and respecting the human condition in order to avoid
conflict that could ultimately lead to genocide. It examines the role
of humiliation in the conflicts in Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodia.
“We need a new way of communicating,” Lindner said. “We need to
understand our defining elements and understand our fore father’s
ideas.”
“This has local relevance in terms of communication with the water
issue, conflict between developers and the environment, and the
problems with the university and the new education building,” Hudnall
said. “It’s all a matter of human interaction.”
Hudnall said the generation of students now will be largely responsible for cleaning up the mess her generation has made.
Hudnall is a genocide scholar and teaches classes on the subject. She
said student interest in the lecture is high and expects a good turn
out. Lees McRae College is one of the many sponsors and expects student
turn out also.
“We’re living in troubled times,” she said. “[The United States is] in
a position where the world doesn’t see us as heroes and we have to come
to grips with that.”
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