Interview with Dr. Harrell

Aisha and I interviewed our Psychology professor . Psychology is one of my majors and Professor Harrell is one of my favorite professors. I really thought he would have an interesting view on our research topic, genocide, and he did not disappoint. Our actual research question was: "What are the political and psychological frameworks surrounding genocide?" The other members in our group interviewed a political science professor. There were a few things that really stood out during Professor Harrell's interview. When asked what would lead a person to start a genocide, he explained to us that their is something wrong with the mental wiring of a person such as this. He also told us that when one group is leading the genocide against another, at some point before the genocide, there was coexistence between the two groups and that some third influence is what caused the genocide. Dr. Harrell believes that this third influence is often an issue of leadership. The issue of genocide is one that I'm pretty passionate about. In high school, I did a lot of activism to increase awareness of genocidal issues. Dr. Harrell gave us a ton of information that will be so useful in putting together our upcoming presentation!