A. Dirk Moses is the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of International Relations at the City College
of New York, CUNY.
Raised in Brisbane, Australia, he was educated at the Universities of Queensland (B.A. 1987), St. Andrews (M.Phil. 1990), Notre Dame (M.A. 1994), and California, Berkeley (Ph.D. 2000). Before coming to City College, he was the Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Global Human Rights History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from July 2000 to July 2022. Between 2000-2010 and 2016-2020, he taught at the University of Sydney. He held the Chair of Global and Colonial History at the European University Institute, Florence, from 2011 to 2015.
His first book, German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past (2007), was awarded the Clio-Online ‘'Historical Book of the Year'’ prize. Dirk has written extensively in the fields of genocide and memory studies. Recent anthologies include The Russian Invasion of Ukraine Victims Perpetrators Justice and the Question of Genocide (2024), Patriotic History and the (Re)Nationalization of Memory (2023), and Decolonization, Self-Determination, and the Rise of Global Human Rights Politics (2020).
Dirk's latest book, The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression, appeared in February 2021. An updated and abridged German version was published in August 2023 as Nach dem Genozid: Grundlage für eine neue Erinnerungskultur.
Dirk has held fellowships at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C; and at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung in Potsdam as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow. He was a visiting fellow at the WZB Center for Global Constitutionalism in Berlin in September-October 2019, a senior fellow at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg in Göttingen in the winter of 2019-20, and a visiting fellow at the K. H. Eberle research center at the University of Constance in July 2023.
Dirk has been senior editor of the Journal of Genocide Research since 2011, and co-edits the War and Genocide book series for Berghahn Books. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of African Military History, Journal of Perpetrator Research, Patterns of Prejudice, Memory Studies, Journal of Mass Violence Research, and Monitor: Global Intelligence of Racism. He also serves on advisory board of the UCD Centre for War Studies and the Memory Studies Association, and is a friend of the International State Crime Initiative.
He posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Blusesky in a private capacity.
Online Writings since February 2022
"The Problem with Universities Australia’s Response to Antisemitism," Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2024. With Geoffrey Brahm Levey and Lana Tatour.
"Trump’s Gaza Plan May Mark the End of the Postwar Order," Jacobin, 16 February 2025. German and Portuguese translations.
"The German Reason of State as State Antisemitism," American German Institute, 28 January 2025.
"Erasing the Distinction Between Genocidal and Military Conduct," The Global Impact of the ICJ Ruling on Israel: A Democracy in Exile
Roundtable, DAWN, 9 February 2024.
“Time for a Two-State Illusion has Passed,” Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 2024.
"Why the International Community Made It So Difficult to Prosecute the Crime of Genocide," DAWN: Democracy in Exile, 19 December 2023.
"More than Genocide: The Law Occludes the Abhorrent Violence Routinely Perpetrated by States in the Name of Self-Defense," Boston Review, 14 November 2023.
"A Diplomatic Option To Avoid Endless War In Ukraine," Noema Magazine, 5 December 2022. With Jessie Barton Hronešová (in German).
"The Problems of Genocide: A Response to Two Israeli Critics," Ha'aretz, 3 November 2022,
"A Path to Peace: The UN administration of Crimea," The Hill, 12 October 2022.
“The Apex of Biographical Intellectual History," Genocide Studies and Prevention, 16: 2 (2022): 3–5.
"The Documenta, Indonesia, and the Problem of Closed Universes," New Fascism Syllabus, 24 July 2022 (German: Geschichte der Gegenwart,
24 July 2022)
"Good Talk" on the Problems of Genocide, Newlinesmag Instagram Live Series, 21 June 2022.
“The Ukraine Genocide Debate Reveals the Limits of International Law,” Lawfare Blog, 16 May 2022.
"The Holocaust in Public Memory," Trinity College Dublin, 22 March 2022.
International Politics Reviews: Forum - Human Shields and the Problems of Genocide, 4 March 2022.
"The Problems of Genocide with A. Dirk Moses," Parallax Views with J.G. Michael, 21 February 2022.
“Settlers and Security: Structures and Subjectivity in State-Formation," keynote lecture (as of 35 mins), Dispossessions and Their Legacies: Comparisons, Intersections, and Connections, Center for Armenian Studies, University of Michigan, 10 February 2021.
"Affective Colonization as Minority Management," Replito, 9 February 2022.
"A New German Historians’ Debate? A Conversation with Sultan Doughan, A. Dirk Moses, and Michael Rothberg (Part I and Part II,"
Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, 2 and 4 February 2022.
Podcasts and Recordings
"The Question of Genocide, Revisited," History as it Happens, 28 January 2025.
"The Concept of Genocide and the Destruction of Gaza | Gaza Lecture Series," Busboys and Poets, 25 November 2024.
"The Concept of Genocide and the Destruction of Gaza," ACMCU, Georgetown University, 5 November 2024.
"Germany's Culture of Remembrance -- Is It Enough?" Common Ground Berlin, 4 November 2024.
"Why Netanyahu can’t be indicted for Genocide," SaltCubeAnalytics, 16 August 2024.
"International Network of Genocide Scholars interview with Jeff Bachman," INOGS, July 2024.
"Why Germany? A Conversation with Ana Teixeira Pinto," Dutch Art Institute, 9 July 2024.
"Genocidology (Crimes of Atrocity) with Dr. Dirk Moses," Alie Ward, 8 May 2024.
“Israel and the ‘Crime of Crimes,’” Coda Story, 30 January 2024.
"History As It Happens: The question of genocide," Podcast with Martin di Caro, 20 November 2023.
"Beyond the Genocide Debate: Permanent Security Logic and the Gaza War," Podcast with J.G. Michael, 19 November 2023.
"Ein neuer "Historikerstreit"? Erinnerungskämpfe im Zeichen des Holocaust," Kampnagel, Hamburg, 27 September 2023.
“The UN Genocide Convention,” The G-Word: A Podcast on Genocide, 2 June 2023.
Interview on New Books in Intellectual History about Genocide: Key Themes, ed. Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses, 22 November 2022.
“The German Catechism and the Problems of Genocide,” The Future of Atrocity Memory, Aarhus University, 24 August 2022.
"The Genocide Conundrum -- The Search for Justice," with John Bruni on the Sage: The Focus, 9 June 2022.
"Imperial Reason" (3 hrs 58 mins - 4 hr 27 mins), Die Zivilisationsfrage, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 28 May 2022.
"Genocide in Ukraine," Meduza podcast, 22 May 2022.
of New York, CUNY.
Raised in Brisbane, Australia, he was educated at the Universities of Queensland (B.A. 1987), St. Andrews (M.Phil. 1990), Notre Dame (M.A. 1994), and California, Berkeley (Ph.D. 2000). Before coming to City College, he was the Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Global Human Rights History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from July 2000 to July 2022. Between 2000-2010 and 2016-2020, he taught at the University of Sydney. He held the Chair of Global and Colonial History at the European University Institute, Florence, from 2011 to 2015.
His first book, German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past (2007), was awarded the Clio-Online ‘'Historical Book of the Year'’ prize. Dirk has written extensively in the fields of genocide and memory studies. Recent anthologies include The Russian Invasion of Ukraine Victims Perpetrators Justice and the Question of Genocide (2024), Patriotic History and the (Re)Nationalization of Memory (2023), and Decolonization, Self-Determination, and the Rise of Global Human Rights Politics (2020).
Dirk's latest book, The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression, appeared in February 2021. An updated and abridged German version was published in August 2023 as Nach dem Genozid: Grundlage für eine neue Erinnerungskultur.
Dirk has held fellowships at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C; and at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung in Potsdam as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow. He was a visiting fellow at the WZB Center for Global Constitutionalism in Berlin in September-October 2019, a senior fellow at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg in Göttingen in the winter of 2019-20, and a visiting fellow at the K. H. Eberle research center at the University of Constance in July 2023.
Dirk has been senior editor of the Journal of Genocide Research since 2011, and co-edits the War and Genocide book series for Berghahn Books. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of African Military History, Journal of Perpetrator Research, Patterns of Prejudice, Memory Studies, Journal of Mass Violence Research, and Monitor: Global Intelligence of Racism. He also serves on advisory board of the UCD Centre for War Studies and the Memory Studies Association, and is a friend of the International State Crime Initiative.
He posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Blusesky in a private capacity.
Online Writings since February 2022
"The Problem with Universities Australia’s Response to Antisemitism," Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2024. With Geoffrey Brahm Levey and Lana Tatour.
"Trump’s Gaza Plan May Mark the End of the Postwar Order," Jacobin, 16 February 2025. German and Portuguese translations.
"The German Reason of State as State Antisemitism," American German Institute, 28 January 2025.
"Erasing the Distinction Between Genocidal and Military Conduct," The Global Impact of the ICJ Ruling on Israel: A Democracy in Exile
Roundtable, DAWN, 9 February 2024.
“Time for a Two-State Illusion has Passed,” Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 2024.
"Why the International Community Made It So Difficult to Prosecute the Crime of Genocide," DAWN: Democracy in Exile, 19 December 2023.
"More than Genocide: The Law Occludes the Abhorrent Violence Routinely Perpetrated by States in the Name of Self-Defense," Boston Review, 14 November 2023.
"A Diplomatic Option To Avoid Endless War In Ukraine," Noema Magazine, 5 December 2022. With Jessie Barton Hronešová (in German).
"The Problems of Genocide: A Response to Two Israeli Critics," Ha'aretz, 3 November 2022,
"A Path to Peace: The UN administration of Crimea," The Hill, 12 October 2022.
“The Apex of Biographical Intellectual History," Genocide Studies and Prevention, 16: 2 (2022): 3–5.
"The Documenta, Indonesia, and the Problem of Closed Universes," New Fascism Syllabus, 24 July 2022 (German: Geschichte der Gegenwart,
24 July 2022)
"Good Talk" on the Problems of Genocide, Newlinesmag Instagram Live Series, 21 June 2022.
“The Ukraine Genocide Debate Reveals the Limits of International Law,” Lawfare Blog, 16 May 2022.
"The Holocaust in Public Memory," Trinity College Dublin, 22 March 2022.
International Politics Reviews: Forum - Human Shields and the Problems of Genocide, 4 March 2022.
"The Problems of Genocide with A. Dirk Moses," Parallax Views with J.G. Michael, 21 February 2022.
“Settlers and Security: Structures and Subjectivity in State-Formation," keynote lecture (as of 35 mins), Dispossessions and Their Legacies: Comparisons, Intersections, and Connections, Center for Armenian Studies, University of Michigan, 10 February 2021.
"Affective Colonization as Minority Management," Replito, 9 February 2022.
"A New German Historians’ Debate? A Conversation with Sultan Doughan, A. Dirk Moses, and Michael Rothberg (Part I and Part II,"
Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, 2 and 4 February 2022.
Podcasts and Recordings
"The Question of Genocide, Revisited," History as it Happens, 28 January 2025.
"The Concept of Genocide and the Destruction of Gaza | Gaza Lecture Series," Busboys and Poets, 25 November 2024.
"The Concept of Genocide and the Destruction of Gaza," ACMCU, Georgetown University, 5 November 2024.
"Germany's Culture of Remembrance -- Is It Enough?" Common Ground Berlin, 4 November 2024.
"Why Netanyahu can’t be indicted for Genocide," SaltCubeAnalytics, 16 August 2024.
"International Network of Genocide Scholars interview with Jeff Bachman," INOGS, July 2024.
"Why Germany? A Conversation with Ana Teixeira Pinto," Dutch Art Institute, 9 July 2024.
"Genocidology (Crimes of Atrocity) with Dr. Dirk Moses," Alie Ward, 8 May 2024.
“Israel and the ‘Crime of Crimes,’” Coda Story, 30 January 2024.
"History As It Happens: The question of genocide," Podcast with Martin di Caro, 20 November 2023.
"Beyond the Genocide Debate: Permanent Security Logic and the Gaza War," Podcast with J.G. Michael, 19 November 2023.
"Ein neuer "Historikerstreit"? Erinnerungskämpfe im Zeichen des Holocaust," Kampnagel, Hamburg, 27 September 2023.
“The UN Genocide Convention,” The G-Word: A Podcast on Genocide, 2 June 2023.
Interview on New Books in Intellectual History about Genocide: Key Themes, ed. Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses, 22 November 2022.
“The German Catechism and the Problems of Genocide,” The Future of Atrocity Memory, Aarhus University, 24 August 2022.
"The Genocide Conundrum -- The Search for Justice," with John Bruni on the Sage: The Focus, 9 June 2022.
"Imperial Reason" (3 hrs 58 mins - 4 hr 27 mins), Die Zivilisationsfrage, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 28 May 2022.
"Genocide in Ukraine," Meduza podcast, 22 May 2022.
