A graduate student helps train Cambodian teachers on how to teach the genocide

By Justin Hubbard
Friday, February 11, 2011

Durham, NC -- At a recent teacher workshop in Cambodia, Nguol Sophal
submitted her essay "The Human Heart," unveiling painful memories of an
entire family, including all her children, lost under the Khmer Rouge
regime. Her story of a Khmer Rouge cadre who helped her recover from a
deathly illness led her to proclaim the perpetrators were not all monsters,
but "humans with human hearts."

For Sarah Jones Dickens, a Duke doctoral student in the department of art,
art history and visual studies historical narratives such as these are the
foundation of her work with the Cambodian Genocide Education Project (CGEP).

Dickens works with the Cambodian Ministry of Education and Documentary
Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) to implement genocide education into all
Cambodian high schools and universities. She trains history teachers so
they can teach genocide education in their schools.

Dickens received a Fulbright scholarship in 2007 for her work on visual art
and trauma in Cambodia. Since then, she has continued work with DC-Cam and
has made three trips back to Cambodia during winter and summer breaks.

Dickens, who is now in Durham, hopes to connect with Duke alumni, returned
Peace Corps volunteers and other students at the upcoming Duke in Depth
weekend, Feb. 24-26. She says she looks forward to learning from their
firsthand experiences working on similar issues in the world.

"I think the panels specifically on the roles of art, education women and
religion dovetail with my work in Cambodia," Dickens said.

CGEP aspires to promote national reconciliation and individual healing by
implementing genocide education in all Cambodian high schools and
universities by 2013.

"This is the first time Cambodia has implemented this history since the
genocide occurred and teachers are teaching younger generations, who often
minimize the stories of their parents," Dickens said.

Between 1975-79, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians were killed under the
Khmer Rouge regime. The trauma was such that afterwards the society
experienced what has been termed "a wave of amnesia."

"You need that history in instances of mass trauma. If not, when you say
there is no history, no identity, then you have a past that is completely
vague. How can you heal or how can you rebuild your identity?" Dickens
said.

At the Cambodian workshop this past December, DC-Cam director Youk Chhang,
unveiled his "Land and Reconciliation-Building a Peaceful Society through
Education" model. The model contains more Cambodian-specific notions for
national reconciliation and healing and emphasizes a ground up approach
through education and teachers.

Teachers are respected throughout Cambodian society regardless of religious
or ethnic differences and are the primary actors in gathering historical
narratives.

"They have proven to be highly effective and efficient in collecting these
stories. At the training we asked all the teachers to collect two stories
from their villages so they can write the people's history to then be
disseminated across the country in monograph forms, " Dickens said.

Another important component of CGEP is government support. In addition to
its efforts with the international community to conduct the Cambodia
genocide tribunals, the Cambodian government has also set aside land for
DC-Cam's Sleuk Rith Institute, a permanent center that will function as a
museum, research institute and a university for master degree programs in
human rights and law.

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