Meeting Rwanda halfway : the entanglement of matter and meaning

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation arose from research following U.S. college students on a month-long study abroad trip to Rwanda to learn about the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Channeling poststructural and posthumanist theoretical ideas, such as becoming, rhizomes, assemblages, intra-action, ethico-onto-epistemology, and entanglement, genocide education becomes less about facts, dates, and numbers (though those are still all important) and more about what it means to live in this worldour entangled entanglements, our response(ability) to ourselves and others (humans, nonhumans, and more-than-humans alike). When we (re)conceptualize genocide education (and really all education) into an (always already imperfect and ongoing) ethico-onto-epistemological project of (re)sponding, maybe then we can (be)come to live out what we mean when we say "Never Again."