Research on Rescue During Genocide
During every genocide, some individuals risk their lives to save the people being targeted. Together with Nicole Fox, I study the factors that shape why individuals (and groups) rescue. This includes an emphasis on social characteristics, like gender, as well as aspects of the social situation that affect rescue. We have interviewed 175 Rwandans who rescued during the 1994 genocide that targeted Tutsi across the country. This work has been funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the American Sociological Association, and the Religious Research Association. Currently, we are drafting a book for Cambridge University Press entitled Risking It All During Genocide: Collective Rescue in Rwanda.
Fox, Nicole and Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira. 2024. “Political Invisibility: Rescue Acts by Mothers During the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.” Social Problems.
Wise, Jamie D., Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, and Nicole Fox. 2023. “Examining Moral Decision-Making During Genocide: Rescue in the Case of 1994 Rwanda.” Pages 247-257 in the Handbook of the Sociology of Morality, Volume 2. Edited by Steven Hitlin, Shai M. Dromi, and Aliza Luft. Springer Publishing.
Fox, Nicole, Jamie D. Wise, and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2021. “Following Heavenly Orders: Heroic Deviance and the Denial of Responsibility in Narratives of Rescue.” Deviant Behavior 43(11):1385-1405.
Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Nicole Fox, Courtney DeRoche, and Jamie D. Wise. 2021. “In the Aftermath: The Post-Conflict Social and Economic Consequences of Rescue During Genocide.” Journal of Genocide Research 25(1):24-45.
Fox, Nicole and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2018. “‘I Decided to Save Them’: Factors that Shaped Participation in Rescue Efforts during Genocide in Rwanda.” Social Forces 96(4):1625-1648.
Fox, Nicole, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and John Gasana Gasasira. 2021. “The Impact of Religious Beliefs, Practices, and Social Networks on Rwandan Rescue Efforts During Genocide.” Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 15(1):97-114.