David J. Patrick
Thesis Title: Disbelief to Disinterest: Anglo-American Press Responses to The Holocaust, Bosnia and Rwanda.
Start Year: 2008
Email: d.patrick@sheffield.ac.uk
| Supervisor |
Primary Supervisor:
Secondary Supervisor:
| Research Topic |
Falling within the broad topic of `Holocaust and Genocide Studies´, my research engages with the idea that the Western world has become desensitized to the crime of genocide – in that crimes of this magnitude are no longer considered sufficiently shocking enough to provoke an adequate response. I forward the argument that this concept can help explain the consistent lack of action / intervention in response to recent occurrences of genocide (with a particular focus on that which plagued Rwanda in 1994). I also argue that this phenomenon is in large part a result of the familiarity with which many in the Western world now have with the Holocaust – a development which is in large part a result of mass-media representations of that event, such as in television´s Holocaust or Steven Spielberg´s Schindler´s List. Through my research I hope to development a solid theoretical conceptualization of desensitization, whilst also analyzing the mass media for evidence of this process in action.
| Academic Background |
Glasgow Caledonian University (03' – 07') – BA (Hons) in Social Sciences, majoring in Politics with History (2:1).
University of Edinburgh (07´ – 08´) – MSc (Research) in Politics (B).
| Published Work |
"Modelling Genocide: Can Humanity´s Greatest Scourge Be Predicted?", Kaleidoscope, Volume 2 (1), October 2008
| Conference Papers |
The 4 Key Indicators of Genocide: Lessons from the Holocaust and Rwanda, PSA Postgraduate Conference 2008, University of Edinburgh (06.06.08)
Signs of the Times: Western Media Coverage of Rwanda, Genocide: The Future of Prevention, University of Sheffield, (10.01.09)
| Other Information |
Received the Ben Pimlott Award for Contemporary History for my undergraduate dissertation (2007).