Genocide Studies at USC
Genocide Studies at USC
What exactly do they teach there?
USC offers a minor in Resistance to Genocide, which has come into the spotlight in the wake of Valedictoriangate. Asna Tabassum, the 2024 USC valedictorian, majored in biomedical engineering and minored in Resistance to Genocide. She believes in a one-state solution and the elimination of the state of Israel (see, for example, here). The combination of such beliefs with top grades from all her classes, including classes towards her minor, has naturally raised questions about the program.
In her statement decrying the USC decision to cancel her talk, Tabassum described herself as “a student of history who chose to minor in resistance to genocide, anchored by the Shoah Foundation.”
As reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), the Shoah Foundation has distanced itself from the USC resistance to genocide program. A representative of the Shoah foundation said:
Despite suggestions to the contrary, our Institute is not an academic unit within the university and we do not play a formal role in the degree path of any student. Recent claims of association with the USC Shoah Foundation are inaccurate and have led to confusion about our role, values, and mission.
The genocide minor program was developed by Wolf Gruner (he/his/him), Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History at USC. He is also an academic advisor for the program and a founding director of the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research. His own research interests include “Holocaust and German-Jewish history, as well as the comparative history of genocides/mass violence and racial discrimination against indigenous populations in Latin America.”
He recently published a book titled “Resisters. How Ordinary Jews fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany.” (A conspectus of the book is available at The Conversation).
As noted by the JTA, “it would be possible though difficult to obtain the minor without taking any courses focused at least in part on the Holocaust,” implying that perhaps Tabassum completed the minor without being educated about the history of Holocaust. However, Tabassum did indeed take classes that discussed the Holocaust. In his article in the USC student newspaper, the Daily Trojan, Professor Gruner said that Tabassum was a student in a class of his that included several sections on the Holocaust. We don’t know whether these sections included material on Zionism, the history of the state of Israel, and the current resistance of the Israeli people to acts of genocide such as the Hamas attack of October 7.
As reported by the JTA, the Shoah Foundation explains the importance of teaching about the Holocaust:
We have a sacred obligation to safeguard the memory and importance of the Holocaust. We must ensure this history is not distorted or used to dehumanize anyone, including the Jewish people and those living in the state of Israel. This requires we continue to foster and sustain informed discussion on this history, today and in the future.
Gruner has protested the decision to prevent Tabassum from giving her commencement speech and has described her as “one of the most empathetic persons I have met in my 15 years at USC.”
To paraphrase The Princess Bride:
Empathetic.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.