James Waller

University of Connecticut

James Waller is the inaugural Christopher J. Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice at the University of Connecticut. At the time of filming, he was the Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College (New Hampshire). In addition, he serves as Director of Academic Programs for the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, an international NGO devoted to atrocity prevention.

Waller is the author of six books, most notably his award-winning Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2^nd ed., 2007), Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide (Oxford University Press, 2016), and A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2021). Waller has held numerous visiting professorships, most recently as an honorary visiting research professor at in the George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Justice, and Security at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland (2017). In 2017, he was the inaugural recipient of the Engaged Scholarship Prize from the International Association of Genocide Scholars in recognition of his exemplary engagement in advancing genocide awareness and prevention. Waller has written for The Washington Post, The Irish News, and The Conversation and is frequently interviewed by broadcast and print media, including PBS, CNN, CBC, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, National Geographic, and The New York Times.