Maureen S. Hiebert
Positions
Associate Professor
Affiliations
Research Fellow
Faculty of Arts, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Contact information
Phone number
Office: +1 (403) 220-5633
Background
Educational Background
Doctor of Philosophy Political Science, University of Toronto, 2007
M.A. Political Science, Carleton University, 1993
B.A. Honours Political Studies, University of Manitoba, 1990
Research
Areas of Research
As a long-standing researcher in genocide studies with a focus on law and politics, my current research examines the role of law in the perpetration of the crime of genocide and the ways victims of genocide use the law to protect themselves and find redress. I am currently working on a two-volume monograph in which I explore each of these themes.
Working with two co-editors/convenors (UCalgary political scientists Joshua D. Goldstein and Gavin Cameron) and an interdisciplinary group of scholars, we explore "odd" cases of violence at the margins of terrorism, genocide, and the philosophy of violence.
This project has involved a workshop on "The Oddities of Violence" held at the University of Calgary in June 2023 funded by a SSHRC Connection Grant. We recorded podcast interviews with our contributors from January to May 2023. The podcast "Oddities of Violence" is available on the campus CJFW 90.9fm website and on all major podcast platforms. The current phase of the project is the production of an edited volume of the same name.
In this emerging area of research broadly associated with the study of "future war," I contemplate the challenges the advent of military weapon systems with high or complete levels of autonomy and the possibly future enhancement of soldiers may pose to democratic civil-military relations. While such systems may produce more law-abiding, ethical combatants specifically designed to uphold the laws of armed conflict and military ethics, what I call the "unintelligibility problem" associated with weapon systems driven by complex algorithms could also make it difficult or impossible for civilian authorities to fully imposed their control over armed forces if civilian leadership cannot understand how these systems work or assign legal responsibility if lethal autonomous systems or enhanced soldiers violate the laws of war.
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| POLI 342 LEC 01 01 | Law and Politics | Winter 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Winter 2017, Winter 2018Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021 |
| STST 603 | Questions and Methods | Fall 2023 |
| POLI 543/643 LEC 01 01 | Law and Armed Conflict | Winter 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Winter 2021, Winter 2022 |
| POLI 470 | Genocide | Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Winter 2015, Winter 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Fall 2022 |
| POLI 483 | International Law | Winter 2018, Winter 2019 |
Projects
Oddities of Violence Radio/Podcast Series on CJSW and Apple Podcasts:
In each episode, your Oddities of Violence hosts interview an expert studying terrorism, genocide, or the philosophy of violence, exploring overlooked or under-appreciated examples that challenge how we think about the boundaries of violence. We cover topics ranging from the Peloponnesian War, the anxieties of the Roman Empire, and panic over organized arson in early-modern European, to Jewish anti-Fascist violence, starvation and revolution in Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and the role of “magical thinking” in modern violence, up to new legal interpretations of Indigenous genocide in North America, on-line violent extremism, and the meaning and uses of the idea of the New to make sense of contemporary protest and violence.
Your Hosts are Gavin Cameron, Joshua D. Goldstein, and Maureen Hiebert, all from the Dept. of Political Science at UCalgary. The producer and lead Research Assistant is Alejandra Vivas Suarez.
Listen to the Episodes here: Oddities of Violence – CJSW Radio or Oddities of Violence on Apple Podcasts
Oddities of Violence SSHRC Funded Workshop
Where are the limits to our existing accounts of political violence?
Bringing together a local and international, transdisciplinary group of experts studying terrorism, genocide, and philosophies of violence, our Oddities of Violence workshop hopes to answer this question through what we are calling “oddities of violence”—overlooked or under-appreciated examples of terrorism, genocide, and the philosophy of violence.
Working at the limits of our understanding of political violence, this workshop opens up new and fruitful research agendas for the study of terrorism, genocide, and the philosophy of violence by putting into dialogue literatures and knowledge that too often exist in parallel.
The Oddities of Violence workshop takes place over a day-and-a-half (June 8–9, 2023) and is organized into three broad conversations that we call “Genesis”, “Archetype”, and “Novelty”.
Our workshop contributors examine cases of terrorism and genocide as well as philosophies of violence ranging from (Genesis) the Peloponnesian War, the anxieties of the Roman Empire, and panic over organized arson in early-modern European, to (Archetype) Jewish anti-Fascist violence, starvation and revolution in Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and the role of “magical thinking” in modern violence, ending with (Novelty) new legal interpretations of Indigenous genocide in North America, on-line violent extremism, and the meaning and uses of the idea of the New to make sense of contemporary protest and violence.
Joining our contributors will be commentators from the Departments of Classics and Religion, Geography, History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology from the University of Calgary.
The event is organized and convened by Gavin Cameron, Joshua Goldstein, and Maureen Hiebert of the Department of Political Science.
The Oddities of Violence workshop is generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connect Grant program, as well as by the University of Calgary’s Vice-President Research, Faculty of Arts, and Centre for Military, Security, and Strategic Studies.
More information and the watch the sessions here: Home | Oddities Of Violence
Funded by a Transdisciplinary Scholarship Connector Grant, a team of University of Calgary researchers from the Faculty of Law, various department in the Faculty of Arts, the Haskayne School of Business seek to grapple with the multidimensional dynamics and effects of critical mineral exploration, extraction, manufacturing, and use as societies and economies around the world begin the make the transition to a post-carbon world. My role is this project is to focus on the nexus between critical mineral exploitation and political violence, armed conflict, and human rights abuses.
(Book – monograph) Genocide by Law. A two-volume project in which I conceptualize the role law does and does not play in the perpetration of the crime of genocide. Volume I explore this dynamic in a series of case studies covering mass violence genocides perpetrated by authoritarian regime and Indigenous genocides through violence and forced assimilation in settler colonial democracies. Volume II will cover the same case studies with a focus on how victim groups do and do not use the law during and after genocides to seek protection and redress.
Single author journal article: This fully drafted article, tentatively titled “Autonomous Weapons and Democratic Civil-Military Relations: Two Scenarios,” is part of a new research agenda. I argue that while semi-autonomous systems that remain under meaningful human control can enhance civil-military relations, fully autonomous weapons, combined with the possible advent of enhanced “super soldiers,” risks undermining all dimensions of democratic civil-military relations because the decision-making of these complex systems will be unintelligible to civilian leaders, military commanders and operators, even programmers and developers, and society at large. In this scenario, our weapons of war will no longer be mere tools but actor/combatants, thus fundamentally changing the nature of war.
Single author journal article: A deeper dive into one aspect of the above article, this fully draft piece explores how fully autonomous weapons systems may seriously challenge the role of law in civilian control of the military. I theorize in a way new to the literature how and why law is a pillar of democratic civil-military relations.
Single authored book chapter: a chapter on historical and contemporary genocide denial in North America for Klejda Mulaj’s new edited book project Degenerative Genocide Denial.
PhD (completed)
Sara Winger, PhD Political Science, defended November 2023. Dissertation, "The Ontology of Violence: United Nations Peacekeeping Response to Mass Atrocity Violence in Sudan and South Sudan"
Andrew R. Basso, PhD Political Science, defended July 2019. Dissertation, " 'All Four Seasons and I Will Die': A Typology of Displacement Atrocity"
Ben Adu Gyamfi, PhD Political Science (as co-supervisory, primary supervisor, Donald I. Ray), defended July 2015. Dissertation, "Public Policy Making and Policy Change: Ghana's Local Governance, Education, and Health Policies in Perspective"
Masters (completed)
Jordan Arnold, Master of Strategic Studies, defended September 2023. Thesis, "Still in the Closet: LGBTQ People and the Lack of Protection in Conflict Zones"
Heba Akrouch, Master of Public Policy, complete August 2022. Masters Research Paper on gender-based Canadian foreign policy in Afghanistan
Toby Berriault, MA Political Science (co-superviser Pablo Policzer), defended September 2013.Thesis, "Unusual Suspects: Religion, Chieftancy, and Post-Conflict Reintegration in Sierra Leone"
Jessica Naidu, MA Culture and Society, defended September 2012. Thesis, "Propaganda and Rape in the Rwandan Genocide"
Masters (ongoing)
Diana Adongo, MA Political Science, (co-supervisor Daniel Voth). Thesis on local responses to China's Belt and Road Initiative in Kenya, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Claire Dickson, Master of Strategic Studies. Thesis on the genocide against the Uyghurs.
Sarah Meyers, Master of Strategic Studies. Thesis on state security agencies' responses to right-wing extremism in Canada
Awards
- Great Supervisor Award , Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Calgary. 2019
Publications
- "Motivations and Justifications [for genocide]: 1945 Onward" . Maureen S. Hiebert. A Cultural History of Genocide in the Modern World, Deborah Mayersen (eds.) Bloomsbury Press. 45-68. (2021)
- “Rhetorical versus Substantive Reconciliation After Cultural Genocide in Canada” . Maureen S. Hiebert. Postgenocide: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Effects of Genocide, Klejda Mulaj (ed.) Oxford University Press. 255-279. (2021)
- “Genocide Studies Scholarship and its Failure to Solve the ‘Two Cultures’ Problem” . Maureen S. Hiebert. Genocide Studies International, Vol. 14, No. 1. 34-44. (2020)
- “Genocide, Revolution, and Starvation Under the Khmer Rouge” . Maureen S. Hiebert. Genocide Studies International, Vol. 11, No. 1. 68-86. (2017)
- “Why the (Western) Cavalry Isn’t Coming and What We Can Do About It” . Maureen S. Hiebert. Last Lectures of Prevention and Intervention of Genocide, Samuel Totten (ed.) Routledge. 209-221. (2017)
- “Strange Legacies of the Terror: An Hegelian Analysis of the Shape and Sequence of the Khmer Rouge Purges”. Joshua D. Goldstein and Maureen S. Hiebert. The European Legacy, Vol. 21, No. 2. 1-23. (2016)
- “Atrocity Prevention and Western National Security: The Limitations of Making R2P All About Us”. Maureen S. Hiebert. Politics and Governance, Vol. 3, No. 4 . 12-25. (2015)
- Editors’ Introduction. Maureen S. Hiebert and Henry Theriault. Genocide Studies International, Vol. 8, No. 2 . 117-121. (2014)
- Constructions of Genocide and Mass Violence: Society, Crisis, Identity. Maureen S. Hiebert. Routledge Studies in Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. 224. (2017)
- “From Political Scientist to Genocide Studies Scholar and Back Again” . Maureen S. Hiebert. Advancing Genocide Studies: Personal Accounts and Insights from Scholars in the Field, Samuel Totten (ed.) Transaction Press. 79-96. (2015)
- “Questioning Boundaries: What’s Old and What’s New in Comparative Genocide Theory”. Maureen S. Hiebert. Genocide Matters: Ongoing Issues and Emerging Perspectives, Joyce Apsel and Ernesto Verdeja (eds.) Routledge. 16-41. (2013)
- “Do Criminal Trials Prevent Genocide? A Critical Analysis”. Maureen S. Hiebert. Impediments to The Prevention and Intervention of Genocide, Vol. 9, Samuel Totten (ed.) Transaction Press. 223-245. (2013)
- “The Role of Globalization in the Causes, Consequences, Prevention, and Punishment of Genocide”. Maureen S. Hiebert. Globalization and Human Rights in the Developing World, Derrick M. Nault and Shawn P. England (eds.) Palgrave. 193-222. (2011)
- “Genocide in Chile?: An Assessment”. Maureen S. Hiebert and Pablo Policzer. State, Violence, and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years, Marica Esparza, Henry R. Huttenback, and Daniel Feierstein (eds.) Routledge. 64-80. (2009)
- “Mass Atrocity Response Operations (MARO) as Partial Operationalization of R2P”. Maureen S. Hiebert. Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal. Vol. 6, No. 1 . 52-58. (2011)
- “Theorizing Destruction: Reflections on the State of Comparative Genocide Theory”. Maureen S. Hiebert. Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3 . 309-339. (2008)
- “The ‘Three Switches’ of Identity Construction in Genocide: The Nazi Final Solution and the Cambodian Killing Fields”. Maureen S. Hiebert. Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, Vol. 3, No.1. 5-29. (2008)
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