We are pleased to invite you to a lecture by Professor Joe Delap from Athens State University, who will present a lecture titled
Bitburg, Ratification, and Implementation of the Genocide Convention by the US
Thursday, May 22, 2025
4:45 PM
Where?
Dobra 55, room 2.118
(the building features some mobility accommodations: ramp and lift)
What?
Often credited with playing a crucial role in drafing the United Nations Genocide Convention, the United States nonetheless did not officially gain key Senate support for the 1948 treaty until 1986. After forty years of US criticism and rejection of the treaty, ratification came about in 1988, not as the result of any change in moral stance but rather as a concession following President Ronald Reagan’s major diplomatic misstep in visiting the site of Nazi SS soldiers interred at Bitburg Cemetery in Germany. America’s delayed ratification of the Genocide Convention is frequently blamed on the treaty’s perceived threat to the country’s sovereignty, a notion borne out by post-implementation “reservations and understandings” protecting the US from becoming subject to the Convention’s articles without advice and consent of the Senate. The presentation delves into the history of the US’s role in the Convention, discusses US-European dealings prompting Senate ratification, and concludes by looking at what difference, if any, US ratification has made in assessing, investigating, and prosecuting genocide in the International Criminal Court.
Who?
Professor Joe Delap holds a double-major bachelor’s in French and Political Science, two master’s degrees, and a Ph.D., spanning liberal arts and interdisciplinary areas of concentration. He is fluent in Dutch, English, and German and currently teaches 19th and 20th Century History, Globalization, Genocide Studies, and Human Expansion at Athens State University in Athens, Alabama (the oldest institution of higher learning in the State).
Currently in his 30th year of full-time teaching and research at the college level, Dr. Delap’s most recent scholarship has been in the fields of History and Genocide Studies focusing on how migration in Africa, Latin America, the Mediterranean Basin, the Balkans, and elsewhere globally points to the need for development of policies and active measures to prevent mass atrocities.
In terms of personal engagement in scholarly pursuits, he has presented at international conferences and published in the areas of Caribbean Studies, Dutch Studies, Film Studies, German Language and Literature, Holocaust Studies, Post-Colonial Studies, and Religious Studies. Further, he has lectured and conducted master classes in North Africa to promote understanding around conflict, exploitation, and mass atrocities, delivered key note addresses to international conferences, and been honored by international Fulbright Commissions as an International Administrator, Senior Scholar, Senior Specialist, and Teaching Fellow (Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, and Poland).
Delap currently serves as Professor of History at Athens State University, having previously served as Dean, Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Vice President for Corporate and Community Relations.
