Contested Memory: State and Survivor Narratives of Genocide
About this Event
March 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Join us on Zoom
An online lecture by Hannah Roth (Grinnell College)
2025 Charles E. Scheidt Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow
Organized by the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research
Cosponsored by the USC Dornsife Department of Anthropology and Department of Anthropology at Grinnell College
Collective memory plays a central role in shaping national identity. States often promote particular interpretations of the past to foster cohesion, legitimacy, and political authority. In moments of escalating tensions, the state can mobilize such narratives to justify exclusion, repression, or even genocide of targeted groups. Before, during, and after genocide, however, alternative accounts persist, narratives that challenge state-sanctioned histories and confront distortion and denial.
In this lecture, undergraduate student Hannah Roth (majoring in History and Anthropology, Grinnell College) examines three case studies: the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the Guatemalan Genocide, and the 2017 violence against the Rohingya. Drawing on survivor testimonies, state-produced documents, and other media, she explores how competing narratives are deeply tied to questions of power, justice, and belonging, both in the past and in the present.
Hannah Roth is a current third-year undergraduate student at Grinnell College studying history and anthropology with a concentration in Latin American Studies. At Grinnell, Roth has researched gender discrimination and gender-informed culture through the lens of her experience as a student-athlete, conducting a directed-research archival ethnography on Grinnell’s Women’s Cross Country Team, exploring Title IX’s role in facilitating unique campus and athletic cultures. Additionally, she has conducted extensive ethnography on manifestations of sexual violence in outdoor recreation. Outside of her ethnographic research, Roth is interested in memory studies, post-modern theory, gender and power, and ontological theory. Read more about her here.
This program is open to all eligible individuals. USC operates all of its programs and activities consistent with the university’s Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other prohibited factor.