Miami, March 24, 2014 – The acclaimed Holocaust and Genocide Education Program (HGEP) at Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Homestead Campus will host its Genocide Awareness Week April 1 – 5. This year, the Confucius Institute at MDC will co-host Professor Xiaming Yang of the Nanjing Normal University, who will speak at various MDC campuses. All presentations are free and open to the public.
Prof. Yang is a Research Fellow on the Nanjing Massacre and World War II and will present his research on the Nanjing Massacre of 1937-1938. Currently, he teaches international relations at Jiangsu Institute of Public Administration in Nanjing and also leads a key research project on the Chinese Holocaust in World War II based on American diplomatic documents. Prof. Yang’s research is sponsored by the National Office of Social Sciences and Philosophy (China) as well as China’s Ministry of Education.
The story of Nanjing, which was seemingly forgotten until the late 1940s, is one of tremendous suffering that predates other horrific events of World War II and became familiar to Americans after the publication of Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking (1997). The story – as told by Chang’s parents who escaped from China during the war – details the six-week rampage that lead to the destruction of 300,000 men, women, and children by the Imperial Japanese Army after overtaking the capitol city of Nanjing.
The HGEP was established at the first Kristallnacht Remembrance event at the Homestead Campus in 2008 and has grown to include Holocaust and genocide survivors and scholars from all over the world. The program’s mission is to increase awareness about the Holocaust and genocide within a framework of global citizenship. To date, more than 10,000 people have participated in the program’s activities and events.
Prof. Xiaming Yang will speak at:
Homestead Campus
Wednesday, April 2, at 9 a.m.
500 College Terr., Room F222
Wolfson Campus
Wednesday, April 2, at 5:40 p.m.
300 NE Second Ave., Room 7128
North Campus
Thursday, April 3, at 9:50 a.m.
11380 NW 27 Ave., Room 2151
Kendall Campus
Thursday, April 3, at 1 p.m.
11011 SW 104 St., Building R, Room 403