Expanding Beyond Genocide: Call for Submissions

Background

Beyond Genocide is a pioneering visual art opus that develops thematic currents of narration examining a pan-historic chronology and geography of mass atrocity events. Advancing awareness and scholarship at the intersection of genocide and the arts contributes critically to a deeper understanding of human behavior, promoting empathy and social change, and serves as a powerful tool for preventing future atrocities. Beyond Genocide is singularly structured to shed light on the many facets of inquiry and critical reflection of pivotal mass atrocities around the globe and throughout history where traditional academic studies may not capture.

New Vision

In 2024, Beyond Genocide received generous annual funding to expand and complete the series through a juried “call-for-art“. Individual commissioned pieces will be awarded annually, adding to and conversing with the existing works, with the project set for completion within an 8-year time frame.

Project organizer Amy Fagin is working with an Arts Awards Advisory Council with expertise in genocide studies, art expression, exhibition practices, communications, and outreach and we are in the first stages of drafting the structure of the jury pool, participating institutions, and finalizing the list of case studies representing the artworks to be added to the existing exhibition.

Submission window for the 2026 – 2028 competition: TBD  

Project Structure & Theme

The competition will integrate new works that respond to and are in concert with an interactive exhibition experience with the original series. The aim is to serve as a focal point for artistic representation in examining each case study listed below, maintaining the highest standards of artistic excellence and public engagement.

Judging

A panel of jurors will award commissions based on artistic merit, adherence to the theme, the relationship to previous works in the series, technical skill and service to the objective of “thinking through art.”

Exhibition & Publicity

An integral part of the competition is the exhibition and public recognition of the awardee’s work. The award ceremony will coincide with an exhibition opening.

Future competitions will be held annually, focusing on the proposed following case studies:

• Palestine / Israel
• Rohingya / Myanmar: Winning Award Announced June 1, 2026.
• Rwanda / Burundi
• Soviet Union under Stalin
• Sudan
• Uganda
• Yezidi
• Yugoslavia (former): Winning Award Announced April 30, 2025.

The inaugural exhibition: Beyond Genocide & Echoes of Abandonment opened October 20th, 2025 at the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography at the Inside Out Centre for the Arts Johannesburg South Africa.  The awards ceremony took place at the International Association of Genocide Scholars biennial conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.  Artworks submitted for this exhibition were donated and acquired by the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre for their permanent collection.

Congratulations to Award Winner Dana Mashoian Walrath PhD for her winning entry: Beyond Genocide #20, Rohingya of Myanmar: “Longing Home”

Announcement for the Awards Ceremony – TBD

The embroidered tapestry “Longing, Home” asserts the global roots and consequences of the Rohingya genocide by establishing the trajectory of “thinking through art” with the resonance of the raw ingredients of the series Beyond Genocide and originality of Rohingya artistry.   The conceptual framework will be created and crafted by Rohingya artisans who will explore themes that define their lives: displacement, statelessness, Rohingya cosmology, memory, domestic life, oral and written tradition that transcend the confinement of the camps in Bangladesh. The tapestry’s lettering and imagery will be designed and embroidered by artisans under the artistic direction of Dr. Walrath and associated with the training and production centers in the refugee camps located  in Bangladesh.  The composition as process and co-creation will be reflected in a documentary experience conceptualizing, creating and completing the finished art-piece.  Artisan collaborators will participate not only in the fabrication, but also in shaping imagery, symbolism, sequencing, texture and compositional structure, and in so doing create agency in shaping the symbolism and texture of their lives now and in the future.

Please note that the image below is an example of the concept for this art work.  It is NOT a sketch of the final image. 

Dr. Bjorn Krondorfer is a Regents’ Professor and Director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University, where he also teaches Religious Studies. He has held guest faculty positions in Berlin, South Africa, and Amsterdam. Since 2020, he has chaired the national “Consortium of Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies” and serves on the Honorary Committee for the Social Museum of Jewish History in Kielce, Poland. His recent books include Unsettling Empathy (2020) and The Holocaust and Masculinities (2020). Dr. Krondorfer has organized numerous academic symposia and exhibitions, including Echoes of Loss (2018) and Wounded Landscapes (2014).

Dr. Alexis Herr is a Holocaust historian dedicated to preventing genocide and human rights violations. She holds a Ph.D. from Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and currently lectures at the University of San Francisco. As co-founder and Director of Education for the Cambodian Genocide Resource Center, her work emphasizes genocide education. She has received numerous awards, including fellowships from the Holocaust Educational Foundation and US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her publications include The Holocaust and Compensated Compliance in Italy (2016) and upcoming LGBTQ+ and the Holocaust (2025). Dr. Herr also edited key reference guides on Rwanda and Sudan.

Dr. Sabah Carrim is a Postdoctoral Scholar in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Martin-Springer Institute and a Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (CGHR). She serves as Arts & Literature Editor for Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal and co-hosts Not to Forgive, But to Understand, a podcast on genocide studies. A five-time judge for the African Writers Award, she won the 2024 Afritondo Short Story Prize and the 2019 AfroYoung Adult Short Story Competition. Author of Humeirah and Semi-Apes, she is widely published across Africa, Asia, the UK, and the US.