Alex Hinton
Biography
Alexander Hinton is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University. He is the author or editor of seventeen books including the award-winning Why did they Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide (California, 2005). His most recent books are It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US (NYU, 2021), Anthropological Witness: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Cornell, 2022), and Perpetrators: Encountering Humanity's Dark Side (Stanford, 2023).
Research Initiatives
Alex Hinton (@AlexLHinton) is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director for the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair in Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University. He is the author or editor of seventeen books, including, most recently, It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US (NYU, 2021), Anthropological Witness: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Cornell, 2022), and Perpetrators: Encountering Humanity's Dark Side (Stanford, 2023). In recognition of his work on Genocide, The American Anthropological Association selected Hinton as the recipient of the 2009 Robert B. Textor and Family Prize for Excellence in Anticipatory Anthropology. He also received the AAA's 2022 Anthropology in the Media Award. Professor Hinton is a past president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (2011-13), a Member/Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2011-13), and co-convener of the Global Consortium on Bigotry and Hate (2018-25). In 2016, he testified as an expert witness at the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia, and he has been invited to speak around the world.
Education
Ph.D. Anthropology, Emory University, 1997.
Courses Taught
Genocide
Hate
Human Rights
Atrocity Crimes Prevention
Associated Programs
Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights
Department of Anthropology, Rutgers New Brunswick
Division of Global Affairs
Peace and Conflict Studies
Global Asias
Publications
Books
2023 (Co-author) Perpetrators: Encountering Humanity’s Dark Side. Stanford, Stanford University Press.
2023 (Co-editor) The Oxford Handbook of Transitional Justice. Oxford University Press [forthcoming in fall 2023]
2022 Anthropological Witness: Lesson from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
2021 It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US. New York: NYU Press.
2019 Rethinking Peace: Discourse, Memory, Translation, and Dialogue. New York: Rowman & Littlefield (Giorgio Shani and Jeremiah Alberg, co-editors).
2018 The Justice Facade: Trials of Transition in Cambodia. Oxford: Oxford University Press
2016 Man or Monster? The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer. Durham: Duke University Press.
2015 Genocide and Mass Violence: Memory, Symptom, Recovery. Cambridge University Press (Devon Hinton, co-editor).
2014 Colonial Genocide in Indigneous North America. Duke University Press (Andrew Woolford and Jeff Benvenuto, co-editors).
2014 Hidden Genocides: Power, Knowledge, Memory. Rutgers University Press. (Thomas LaPointe and Douglas Irvin, co-editors).
2010 Transitional Justice: Global Mechanisms and Local Realities after Genocide and Mass Violence. Rutgers University Press.
2009 Genocide: Truth, Memory, and Representation (Kevin O'Neill, co-editor). Duke University Press.
2005 Why Did They Kill?: Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide, University of California Press, 2005. [2008 Stirling Award for Best Published Work in Psychological Anthropology, Society for Psychological Anthropology]
2002 Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide, University of California Press.
2002 Genocide: An Anthropological Reader, Blackwell.
1999 Biocultural Approaches to the Emotions, Cambridge University Press.
Special Journal Issue
2019 (co-edited) Critical Genocide and Atrocity Prevention Studies. Genocide Studies and Prevention. Issue 13, Vol 3.
Select Recent Articles, Chapters, and Essays
2023 Two Myths Fueling the Conservative Right's Dangerous Transphobia. Sapiens, April 19.
2023 Pol Pot's Secret Prison. On the Seawall, April 4
2023 The International Criminal Court wants to prosecute Russia for War Crimes. The U.S. should help. Los Angeles Times, March 14.
2023 I went to CPAC to take MAGA Supporters' pulse -- China and transgender people were among the top 'demons' they say are ruining the country. The Conversation, March 13.
2023 A Year On, We Have Clear Evidence of Genocide in Ukraine. The Hill, February 19.
2023 Violent Extremists are not lone wolves – dispelling this myth could help reduce violence. The Conversation, February 23.
2023 Was Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal Worth the Effort? The View of an Anthropological Witness. The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 21, Issue 1, January 15.
2023 Trumpism has already won in 2023. Project Syndicate, January 12.
2022 Justice at Last for Cambodia's Killing Fields? The Diplomat, September 21.
2022 Micro-Totalitarianism in the U.S. -- It Has Happened Here Before and May Happen Again. Today's Totalitarianisms, August.
2022 Russia’s Mass Kidnappings of Ukrainians are a Page Out of a Wartime Playbook – and Evidence of Genocide. The Conversation, July 20.
2022 War Crimes or Genocide? Either Way, We Can’t Let Russian Atrocities Go Unanswered. Los Angeles Times, April 5.
2022 Is Russia Committing Genocide in Ukraine? A Human Rights Expert Looks at the Warning Signs. The Conversation, April 1.
2022 (Co-author) Russia’s Political Misuse of the Term Genocide as Pretext for Invading Ukraine. Research Brief, International Association of Genocide Scholars, March.
2022 Putin’s Claims that Ukraine is Committing Genocide are Baseless, but not Unprecedented,” The Conversation, February 25.
2022 Black Genocide and the Limits of Law. OpinioJuris, January 13.
2021 The Snake – Trump’s White Genocide Parable. Journal of Perpetrator Research 4(1): 59-68.
2021 70 Years Ago Black Activists Accused the U.S. of Genocide. They Should Have Been Taken Seriously. Politico, December 26
2021 Why We Need a Truth Commission on White Supremacy, May 12
2020 5 Reasons Not to Underestimate Far-Right Extremists. The Conversation, October 28.
2020 Trump’s Helter Skelter. Project Syndicate, October 9.
2020 What White Power Supporters Hear Trump Saying. Sapiens, October 6.
2020 Ellipsis: The Authoritative Guide to the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes. Verges: Studies in Global Asias 6(1): 78-85.
2020 Critical Perpetrator Studies. In The Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies. Susanne Knittel and Zachary Goldberg, eds. Pp. xiv-xix. New York: Routledge.
2019 The First Lesson in Genocide Prevention. Genocide Studies and Prevention 3(3): 128-144.
2019 (co-authored) Critical Genocide and Atrocity Prevention Studies. Genocide Studies and Prevention 3(3): 1-8.
2019 Look Again – Aleppo: The Last Lesson on Prevention. In Rethinking Peace: Discourse, Memory, Translation, and Dialogue. Alexander Laban, Hinton, Giorgio Shani, and Jeremiah Alberg, eds. Pp. 221-238. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
2019 Anthropology, Critique, and Justice in Translation. Genocide Studies and Prevention 13(3): 173-75.
2019 (co-authored) Introduction: Rethinking Peace Studies. In Rethinking Peace: Discourse, Memory, Translation, and Dialogue. Alexander Laban Hinton, Giorgio Shani, and Jeremiah Alberg, eds. Pp. xiii-xxxii. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
2018 (co-authored) Impassable Visions: The Cambodia to Come, the Detritus in its Wake. In A Companion to the Anthropology of Death. Antonius C. G. M. Robben, ed. Pp. 223-35. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.
2018 Postscript -- Man or Monster? Journal of Genocide Research 20(1): 181-92.
2017 Wonder Woman, the Gutter, and Critical Genocide Studies. In Memory and Genocide: On What Remains and the Possibility of Representation. Fazil Moradi, Ralph Buchenhors, and Maria Six-Hohenbalken, eds., Pp. 165-174. New York: Routledge.
2014 Justice, Time, and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal: In Memory of Vann Nath, Painter and S-21 Survivor. Genocide Studies and Prevention. 8(2): 5-15.
2012 Violence. In The Companion to Moral Anthropology. Didier Fassin, ed. Pp. 500-518. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
2012 Critical Genocide Studies. Genocide Studies and Prevention 7(1): 4-15.
2012 (co-editor) Genocide. In Oxford Bibliographies Online. Ed. John L. Jackson, Jr. New York: Oxford University Press.