In this episode of Challenge. Change., we talk to Christopher Davey, the Charles E. Scheidt visiting assistant professor of genocide studies and genocide prevention at Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, about encouraging students to navigate difficult topics through discourse.

Students in Davey’s Mass Atrocity Prevention in Theory and Practice course last spring created podcasts that explored the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in detecting potential atrocity, what genocide is and how to prevent it, and the role of state vs. non-state actors in perpetuating mass violence. In this episode, you’ll hear clips from Tom Atwood ’24, Ezra Schrader ’24, Aedan Achilles ’24, Mackenzie Sullivan ’25, Penelope Kogan ’22, M.A. ’23, and Nico Resnik ’24.

Davey recommends that listeners interested in his area of research read “The Wasted Vigil” by Nadeem Aslam, a fiction work about the interconnections of war and its impact in Afghanistan; “Congo: The Epic History of a People” by David Van Reybrouck, the essential reader on Congo; and “Devil on the Cross” by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kenyan fiction on the impact of capitalism post-independence.

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson and Andrew Hart for Clark University. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.