Considering Genocide in Sudan (Spring 2005)

Recent news articles highlight an on-going civil war in Sudan that has been raging for more than 20 years. The civil war is being fought between the Sudanese Arab government and the southern, largely Christian, black Sudanese. Religion, oil, territory, and scarce resources are all factors in the continuing animosity. The forced displacement of more than 700,000 black Sudanese along with the deaths and rapes of hundreds of thousands of others are being characterized as government-sponsored ethnic cleansing by some, genocide by others. The following lesson complements lessons in the Choices Curriculum unit, Confronting Genocide: Never Again?.

This lesson includes:

Lesson Plan: A one-period lesson that asks students to define genocide.

Online Handouts and Selected Online News Sources: Adapted from Confronting Genocide: Never Again?

Online Ballot - Confronting Genocide: What do you think? After consideration of this issue, we encourage students to make their views known. A report on student views will be developed.

Additional Resources from the Choices Program

Confronting Genocide: Never Again? traces the evolution of the international community's response to genocide and examines how the United States has responded to five cases of genocide. The evaluation of multiple perspectives, informed debate, and problem solving strategies that comprise this unit enable students to develop their own policy suggestions concerning America?s response to future genocide or ethnic cleansing.

Dilemmas of Foreign Aid: Debating U.S. Priorities, Policies, and Practices introduces students to many of the most important issues on the U.S. policy agenda for the developing world. Sudan is highlighted as one of the case studies in the unit.

The U.S. Role in the World Online Ballot: After consideration of this issue, we invite you to give students an opportunity to wrestle with larger question of the U.S. role in the world using an online ballot activity. What do they think about America's role? What issues are of most concern to them? What kind of world do they want in the 21st century?

Supplemental Materials

See the Supplemental Materials section for links to other sites and related online resources from the Choices Program.

This lesson has been developed by the Choices for the 21st Century Education Program at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.

Let us hear from you

If you join our mailing list, we will notify you via email when new Choices curriculum units or Teaching with the News mini-units are developed.

_________________________________________________________________________

Review a list of Choices publications: In addition to its online resources, the Choices Program publishes a wide range of curriculum units on historical turning points and current issues. All published units include extensive background readings and accompanying lesson plans. Ordering is available online.