Professor of International and Public Affairs
Director, Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation at The Salzburg Seminar
International Affairs Building, Room 1130
Phone: 212-854-9463
eb2302@columbia.edu
http://sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/eb2302-fac.html

Professor Barkan received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Comparative European History in 1988. He graduated with magna cum laude with a B.A. in Modern European History from Tel Aviv University in 1980. Since 2003 he has served as the Director for the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation [IHJR] for the Salzburg Seminar supported by ‘The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs’. He was also involved with the ‘Institute for the Study and Preservation of Local Cultures’ (ISPLC) from 1996 to 2002. His research interests include: Human Rights; Post Conflict Societites (Reparation and Transitional Justice); Cultural property; history of imperialism and colonialism; Cultural and intellectual history post 1850; race and racism; primitivism and modernism.

Barkan has published numerous books which include: Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation, An edited volume with Alexander Karn, (Stanford University Press 2006, Forthcoming); Claiming the Stones/Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity (Issues & Debates), an edited volume with Ronald Bush (Getty, 2003); The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (Norton, May 2000); Völker klagen an. Eine neue internationale Moral. (Patmos Verlag March 2002); Borders, Exiles and Diasporas, an edited volume with Marie Denise Shelton (Stanford University Press, 1998); Prehistories of the Future: Primitivism, Modernism, and Politics, an edited volume with Ronald Bush (Stanford University Press, 1995); The Retreat of Scientific Racism (Cambridge University Press, 1992); and was the editor of the series Cultural Sitings (1993-), (Stanford University Press).

Additionally he has published various articles. His forthcoming articles include: “Primitivism” in Encyclopedia Of Europe: 1789-1914, Editors in Chief, John Merriman, Jay Winter (2006); “The worst is yet to come: Abu Ghraib and the politics of not Apologizing,” in Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation, an edited volume with Alexander Karn, (Stanford University Press, 2005); The introduction to Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation, an edited volume with Alexander Karn, (Stanford University Press, 2005); “Mirage of Rights” in "Facts, Rights, and Remedies: Enforcing International Law in the Israel/Palestine Conflict," Hastings International and Comparative Law Review (2005) and “Between Apologies and Historical Commissions: Managing Historical Conflicts” in The Age of Apology, edited by Mark Gibney and Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, (2005).

Barkan has organized the following conferences relevant to the Luce Project: “History, Memory and Polish-Jewish Relations”: A Project of the Institute on Historical Justice and Reconciliation [IHJR] and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs [CCEIA] Working Group on “Interethnic Relations in Soviet-Occupied Territories of Poland, 1939-1941” January 21-23, 2005 (in Cooperation with Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Leipzig). She organized the following for the Institute on Historical Justice and Reconciliation: the Northern Ireland Conference (October 15 - 18, 2004); Middle East Conference (October 08 - 11, 2004); Historical Memories of Cooperation, Conflict and Reconciliation in Uganda (July 07 - 09, 2004) with CBR, Kampala; and the Israeli- Palestinian Historical Commission (January 16 - 28, 2004). Additionally the conferences: A Polish - Jewish workshop on Historical reconciliation,” (with the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs and the Simon Dubnow Institute) Leipzig, Germany, April, 4-6 2003 and “Historian’ Commissions: Negotiating Historical Narratives,” (with the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs), Pocantico Conference Center, February 2002.

His recent and current invited lectures applicable to the Luce Project include: “Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge: Human Rights and Genocide,” April 20-21, 2005, Yerevan, Armenia;“Amnesia, Truth, Reconciliation” After Nine Decades: The Enduring Legacy of the Armenian Genocide UCLA April 1-3, 2005; “Introduction to the project and writing shared narratives” in “History, Memory and Polish-Jewish Relations: Interethnic Relations in Soviet-Occupied Territories of Poland, 1939-1941” January 21-23, 2005, Leipzig; "The Holocaust: A non-paradigmatic genocide?" Lessons & Legacies VIII, The Holocaust Educational Foundation & Brown University, November 3-7, 2004; “Mirage of Rights” in "Facts, Rights, and Remedies: Enforcing International Law in the Israel/Palestine Conflict," University of California, Santa Barbara; May 22-23, 2004; “The Armenian Genocide and contemporary political reconciliation" The Armenian-Turkish workshop March 28-30, 2003, University of Minnesota; "Historical Crimes, Political Realism, and Morality with Reflections on the Armenian Genocide." Conference on the Armenian Genocide and Its Denial, Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 10-11 May 2002, Copenhagen; “Historical Commissions and Reconciliation” in the Future of Holocaust Education and Post-Holocaust Justice,” CMC, April 18, 2002; “Comparative Reparations and Restitutions: African-American Slavery and the Jewish Holocaust,” UC Davis, January 29, 2002; In Holocaust Restitution: Reconciling Moral Imperatives and Acknowledged Memory in the Context of Legal Initiatives and Diplomatic Necessities. Fordham Law School, November 1, 2001; “Restitution, Human Rights and Cultural Property,“ Culture & Community in Jerusalem: Strategies to protect and promote Human Rights in Palestine, LAW Conference, Jerusalem, June 4-7, 2000.

Component: Experiments In Track-Two Diplomacy: International Religious Conflict And Toleration In Sacred Sites