Professor; Director of Graduate Studies
History Department
Telephone: 617-552-6881
Email: devin.pendas.1@bc.edu
German History
Modern Europe
History of Mass Violence and War
Genocide
Human Rights
War Crimes
Professor Pendas' research focuses on war crimes trials after World War II, particularly on West German Holocaust trials. He is currently working on two projects: a history of Nazi trials in German courts in all occupation zones from 1945 to 1950, to be published by Cambridge University Press; and a synthetic history of law and mass violence in the modern period. Dr. Pendas has authored âToward a New Politics? On the Recent Historiography of Human Rightsâ (Contemporary European History); âRetroactive Law and Proactive Justice: Debating Crimes against Humanity in Germany, 1945-1950â (Central European History); âInterrogating Torture: Human Rights, the War on Terror, and the Fate of Americaâ (Journal of American Studies); âPunishment as Prevention? The Politics of Punishing Génocidairesâ (Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies); âExplaining Nazism: Ethics, Beliefs and Interestsâ (Modern Intellectual History). He is also the series editor for a book series with Bloomsbury Press, Genocide in Comparative Perspective.Â