Photographs of victims of the Genocide Against the Tutsi, and the Hall of Names, Yad Vashem.

In this event, hosted in association with the Ishami Foundation to mark the anniversary of the ‘100 days’ of the Genocide Against the Tutsi, our panel of speakers will consider issues around denial and distortion of the Holocaust and of the genocide against Tutsi. Our speakers will each give their perspectives on the nature of these kinds of falsification and misrepresentation of history, current manifestations of these attitudes and beliefs, and the mechanisms by which such beliefs are spread and propagated. There will follow a discussion between panel members exploring the commonalities and differences between these two instances of genocide denial and distortion.

About the speakers:

Lonzen Rugira holds a Phd from Howard University, Washington DC. He studied public policy from the African Studies Research Program for both his masters and doctorate degrees. His undergraduate degrees were in political science and public finance. At Howard University, Lonzen taught the political economy of African states and was a research assistant at the Moorland Spingarn Research Centre. He was a Roitchi Sasakawa Fellow. At the University of Rwanda, he taught in the duo masters programme at the Centre for Conflict Management. He taught genocide studies and prevention and genocide early warning signs.

Linda Melvern is a British investigative journalist, a former member of the Sunday Times Insight Team. She has written seven books of non-fiction. For the past 27 years, she has researched and written exclusively about the circumstances of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Her three books on the subject are: A People Betrayed. The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide, (Zed 2000 Revised paperback 2009) Conspiracy to Murder. The Rwandan Genocide (Verso 2004. Revised paperback 2006) Intent to Deceive. Denying the Genocide of the Tutsi (Verso 2021)

Philip Spencer is Emeritus Professor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Kingston University, where he taught for many years. He is a Visiting Professor in Politics at Birkbeck College, where he is also a Research Associate of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. He is the author of a number of works, including Genocide since 1945; Nationalism – A Critical Introduction and Nations and Nationalism (both with Howard Wollman); and most recently of Antisemitism and the Left – on the Return of the Jewish Question (with Robert Fine). He is currently writing a longer history of genocide.

Joe Mulhall is Head of Researcher at HOPE not hate, a group founded in 2004 to use research, education, advocacy and public engagement to challenge racism and fascism. Mulhall was formally a visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London where he also completed his PhD on the post-war far right. His books include Drums in the Distance: Journeys in the Global Far Right (Icon Books 2021), British Fascism After the Holocaust (Routledge 2020) and co-author of The International Alternative Right (Routledge 2020). He appears regularly in print and broadcast media.

Event guidelines:

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4. The event will be recorded for the Library’s YouTube channel and will be shared at a later date.