Emotions and ethics in teaching mass atrocities using archives

This chapter explores the interplay between ethics and emotions in teaching and studying atrocity crimes through a mixed-method study on the experiences of students and teaching staff on a senior undergraduate course, Criminologies of Atrocity. Students are presented with the general study of atrocity crimes, perpetrators and victims, and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s which act as a case study. At the end of the course, students are assessed by a report on their own criminological archival research with court transcripts and exhibits from the ICTY web-archive. The sensitive nature of the material with which the students work demands reflection on the ethical and emotional dimensions of working in the field of atrocity criminology. Supported by literature on research ethics and the scholarship of teaching and learning sensitive of difficult topics, the study combines focus groups with the students enrolled in the course, survey data collected covering 4 instances of delivery (2020-2023), and reflective conversations between teaching staff. Emotions constitute a normal response to the study of atrocity crimes and emotional support and ethical awareness can help students avoid harm while embracing the challenge of researching and writing about atrocity crimes. We argue that it is fundamental to establish emotionally and ethically responsible ways of teaching mass atrocities through archives rather than avoiding the coverage of sensitive, traumatic topics. Courses grounded in ethics and open to emotions play an important role in a criminological or legal curriculum, and the emotional and ethical journeys made by students demonstrate the effectiveness of creating a supportive place for ethical and emotional growth and evaluation of research and legal practice.