Northeastern Illinois University to host 12th Annual Genocide and Human Rights in Africa and the Diaspora Conference
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Northeastern Illinois University’s Genocide and Human Rights in Africa and the Diaspora (GHRAD) Center will host the 12th Annual GHRAD Conference March 2-4 on the University’s Main Campus, 5500 N. St. Louis Ave. in Chicago, and via Zoom.
The conference is free and open to the public. Advance sign-up is requested to attend in person.
“The GHRAD Conference offers attendees — be it students, educators, activists or community members — the chance to learn about the atrocities that have taken place in Africa and the diaspora and empowers people to find solutions on a local and global scale,” Northeastern Professor and Coordinator of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Director of the GHRAD Center Jeanine Ntihirageza, Ph.D., said. “The conference theme this year is “From Remembrance to Prevention” because it was really important to the GHRAD Center that we not just talk about what happened in the past, but we examine what is happening today and how future generations will be impacted by our collective actions or inactions.”
The schedule includes panel discussions on reparations in Chicagoland, breaking the silence around genocide in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and healing and prevention, among numerous other topics. The keynote speaker will be Mamphela Ramphele, Ph.D., a co-founder of the Black Consciousness Movement alongside Steve Biko. A pivotal figure in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Ramphele has served as the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and in global development as a Managing Director of the World Bank.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Mamphela Ramphele to the GHRAD Conference this year,” Dr. Ntihirageza said. “Her background as an activist, educator, businesswoman and more can offer a unique perspective on how oppression can take root and what can be done to counteract it.”
Northeastern is home to the only oral history archive at a university devoted to survivors of the 1972 genocide in Burundi, Africa. “Mass Atrocity Testimonies — An Oral History Archive,” began in 2023 and continues to grow as University students and employees travel to Burundi and speak with survivors.
“Genocides are often hidden from history,” said Dr. Ntihirageza, who is a survivor of the 1972 genocide in Burundi. “When survivors are centered and given the chance to share their stories, we need to listen. It’s so important to remember what has happened before so that it doesn’t happen again.”
The GHRAD Conference is part of Northeastern’s College of Arts and Sciences themed semester, “Staying the Course for Human Rights: From Awareness to Action,” which centers the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in classes and public programs throughout Spring 2026.
Top photo: A group of attendees at the 2025 GHRAD Conference.