GoingToMeet

Famine and mass violence frequently go hand in hand. Unfortunately, scholars of famine and scholars of mass violence often deal with different questions resulting in a wide lacuna in research and the methodology for analyzing connections between famines and violence. Famine specialists mostly deal with socioeconomic questions, with people as economic subjects, with the working of markets and speculation, food distribution, or deficiencies of state intervention. Entangled in the availability vs. entitlement debate, they care less for power relationships or war-related situations, although famines often occur during wartime or civil conflict. Genocide experts view certain famines as state-organized. Such scholars are interested in motivations of violence, lack of relief efforts, escape prevention, or special policies victimizing refugees. They may miss out on the participatory dimension of famines: social and economic networks, profiteering, or family relations. This conference seeks to bring together both famine experts and genocide specialists to engage in a dialogue with
each other, first during the conference and later in a collective volume resulting from the meeting.