Keith Doubt To Speak At International Conference
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Keith Doubt (second from right) at his book promotion tour in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 2002.
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The conference, “Genocide against Bosniaks in the UN Safe Area Srebrenica in July 1995-Lessons for Future Generations,” coincides with the 10th anniversary of the genocide of more than 7,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces in nearby Srebrenica after being designated as a United Nations Safe Area in 1995.
“Every day children, women and unarmed men were murdered. Every week mass murders occurred. Sadistic rape camps were constructed,” Doubt said.
In early June, a disturbing video surfaced, which revealed Serb paramilitary leaders murdering Bosnian Muslim youths. Bosnian war criminals Radovan Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb leader, and General Ratko Mladic, face 16 counts of genocide at an international court in The Netherlands.
The conference was organized by the Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law of Sarajevo University in conjunction with the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Nearly 200 scholars will gather to present papers and discuss the Srebrenica tragedy. Doubt will be among those scholars - presenting a paper that explores genocide through a scientific critique and what he calls the “moral blindness” of the nationalist Serbs and the international community that viewed the Srebrenica citizens as scapegoats.
“I hope to learn more about the experiences of Bosnians during and after the war and about the reaction of the world to these experiences. I think the two are interconnected,” Doubt said.
In 2001, Doubt received a Fulbright Lecturing Award, part of the prestigious Fulbright program, which funds scholarly opportunities to conduct research and teach courses in various academic disciplines throughout the world. Doubt spent five months teaching sociology classes at the University of Sarajevo, including social theory and theoretical paradigms. He also conducted research for his book, Sociologija Nakon Bosna [Sociology After Bosnia], which examines the sociology of war, published in 2002 in Sarajevo.
As a Fulbright scholar, Doubt has continued to maintain a relationship with the country where he taught. Last year, he created an honors class, “Bosnia-Herzegovina: An Interdisciplinary Study,” in which five Wittenberg students participated in a Web-based course with students from the University of Sarajevo.
In January, Doubt coordinated a symposium, which brought together students from Doubt’s honors course and two natives of Sarajevo who shared their personal experiences of living in Bosnia and engaged in discussions with Doubt’s students.
Doubt is currently developing an online interdisciplinary journal titled Recovering Bosnia, which will include works by national and international scholars. The goal of the journal is to redress Bosnia’s trans-ethnic traditions, cultures and histories, which he says are at risk.
“The tragedy of Bosnia today is that it does indeed have a trans-ethnic history culture, but today there are few viable or functional trans-ethnic institutions to support and sustain these traditions and culture,” he said.
— Sarah Gearhart
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