When

Friday, September 20, 2019
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm

Where

External Venue
Ingraham Hall, Room 206

Event Description

Lecture by Geoffrey Robinson, Professor of History, University of California- Los Angeles.

Long ignored or deliberately misrepresented, the mass killing of some 500,000 Indonesian communists and leftists in 1965-66 has recently become the focus of serious historical inquiry. Among those who have undertaken this work is historian Geoffrey Robinson whose new book, The Killing Season, challenges conventional narratives that portray the violence of 1965-66 as arising spontaneously from religious, cultural, and social conflicts. Robinson argues instead that the violence was the product of a deliberate campaign led by the Indonesian Army, and explores the principal dynamics of that campaign. He also details the pivotal role played by the United States, Britain, and other major powers in facilitating the violence. The paper concludes with reflections on the significance of this history for the more than 50 years of silence and inaction that has followed, and for the pressing current problem of impunity for the perpetrators of those crimes.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the Human Rights Program, and the Department of History.