Held on February 22, 2017
Jacqueline Murekatete, founder of the Genocide Survivors Foundation speaks about her own experiences as a victim of the Rwandan genocide. Moderated by Dr. Trevor B. Milton, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Queensborough Community College, CUNY.
Jacqueline Murekatete is an internationally recognized genocide survivor and human rights activist. Born in Rwanda, Jacqueline was nine years old when she lost her parents, all six siblings, and most of her extended family to the 1994 genocide. Jacqueline was inspired to share her story of survival and hope for the first time in 2001 after listening to the story of the late Holocaust survivor David Gewirtzman, who became a dear friend and mentor. Since then, Jacqueline has delivered hundreds of genocide-prevention and human rights presentations at schools, NGO events, and faith-based communities across the U.S and in Germany, Israel, Ireland, Bosnia, and Belgium. She has also addressed the UN General Assembly and regularly participates in high level human rights conferences.
For her work, Jacqueline has received a number of prestigious awards including: the Kay Family Award from the Anti-defamation League; the Global Peace and Tolerance Award from Friends of the United Nations; the Moral Courage Award from the American Jewish Committee; the Imbuto Foundation's Celebrating Young Rwandan Achievers Award from the First Lady of Rwanda; the Do Something Award from Do Something; and the Ellis Island Medals of Honor award from the National Ethnic Coalition, which put her name in the U.S. Congressional record. Jacqueline is the founder and president of Genocide Survivors Foundation (GSF), a New York based not-for-profit organization, which educates people about the crime of genocide and other forms of mass atrocity crimes and raises funds to support survivors in the areas of education, economic empowerment, and social services.
Dr. Trevor B. Milton is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Queensborough Community College, CUNY. His areas of research include prison reform, adolescent criminal behavior, informal economic practices, urban ethnography, alternative-to-incarceration programs, and the intersectionality of class and racial identity. He is the author of Overcoming the Magnetism of Street Life: Crime-Engaged Youth and the Programs That Transform Them (Lexington Books, 2011), “Class Status and the Construction of Black Masculinity” featured in Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review Journal (Spring 2012), and co-author of The Con Men: Hustling in New York City (Columbia University Press, 2015). Dr. Milton became interested in research on alternative-to-incarceration programs for youth while earning his Master of Arts in Sociology at the New School for Social Research. He earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the New School in 2007.