Ethan Knox

As a Buddhist and as a student studying genocide and mass atrocity prevention, Linda Zheng has seen how pain affects people firsthand. But as she continues to study these events, it’s kindness that she clings to.

“It’s really important for me to understand how genocides occur and how they can be prevented,” said Zheng, originally from Queens, NY. “Often we think of the people who perpetrate the genocides as completely evil and awful. But I think there are other ways of understanding it. Genocides happen from the top down, right from the state to the citizens. It’s really hard to understand the mentality of those perpetrators. If we speak to the victims in terms of how they feel or about what happened in the past, you understand that there’s way more compassion there.”

Zheng is a senior at Binghamton University, and although she minors in genocide and mass atrocity prevention, her interests also diverge into her double major of environmental studies and philosophy, politics and law (PPL).

“I’m always trying to consolidate the things that I care a lot about,” Zheng said. “Through all of that weaving, you can kind of see this thin line where you realize that it’s about trying to make compatible the different areas of studies that don’t seem compatible, and that’s through the understanding of how people engage with them—how people engage with the environment, how people engage with law and how people engage with something as devastating as genocide.”

Over the summer of 2019, Zheng visited Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, with aid received from the Bloom Family Summer Internship in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention.

While in Armenia, Zheng researched the Armenian Genocide, a 1915 mass extermination of Armenian people within the Ottoman Empire. It is estimated that anywhere from 700,000 to 180,000 people died through massacre, subjection and deportation.

Through her research and experience at the Binghamton University radio station, WHRW 90.5, Zheng created a podcast examining commemoration of the event, which she has titled “Stone, Wood, and Fire: Remembering the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan and Binghamton.” It is a collection of oral histories and historical reflection from diasporic Armenian’s living in both Binghamton and Yerevan.

“It was very hard for me not to get emotional,” Zheng said. “You’re hearing the stories of people whose families have been deeply impacted by something as tragic as genocide, and then also that additional layer of tragedy and trauma that they feel, even generations after. It’s very difficult not to feel moved by it.”

In Yerevan, there are many different avenues of memorializing the event, such as the state-sponsored march to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial on April 24—known as Genocide Remembrance Day—or more personal dedication such as dancing and art. Zheng believes that even through this tragedy, the community it has created is invaluable to universal healing.
“For Armenians, they have a great understanding of their history because there’s no way for them not to know about it,” Zheng said. “It’s taught through their families; it’s taught through their schools. With their history there were moments where there was a real danger of [their traditions] being lost. Even though I wasn’t Armenian, just being there and understanding the type of community that can be fostered made me realize that this is very important.”

Zheng also participated in an internship with the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) while in Armenia. As part of this internship, she communicated with local communities to create resources for individuals to protect their land and environment, a big focus of all aspects of her degree.

One example of the ways in which her environmental studies major and her genocide prevention minor interact is through Armenian khachkars, or ceremonially carved memorial stones.
“Even now they’re being destroyed in Turkey, Azerbaijan and all the surrounding areas,” Zheng said. “The only place that they really exist in now is in Armenia. These cross stones are centuries old. They’re rooted in the very ground that they were built in. In order for them to protect those khachkar’s, they need to protect the environment that these khachkar’s are in. It’s a direct kind of connection between the cultural destruction that is still continuing through genocide. The environment itself needs to be protected in order to protect those cultural relics.”

But Zheng’s interest in environmental health extends to New York City and Binghamton, as well. In NYC, Zheng participated in another internship with New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, where she documented and recorded trees planted near streets.
“We don’t really consider [the environment] as living,” Zheng said. “And because of that, we almost see a tree on the street as just another aspect of the physical world we live in, like a trashcan—we don’t realize that they’re alive. Once I realized that, it completely changed the way that I perceive the world around me and the different natural aspects that are in such close proximity to us.”

When Zheng first came to Binghamton University, she said she realized that “trees can be taller than buildings” outside of major cities. This awareness and her varied experiences in sustainability translated into an appreciation for the Binghamton area, and eventually a team position in the Food Co-op, a student-run vegetarian/vegan market and café.

Although the Co-op is currently closed due to the University’s basement renovation, Zheng said she believes the organization is one of the first steps to a more compassionate community.
“Oftentimes, we don’t think about the type of power we have as consumers,” Zheng said. “If we can create a space in which we can foster greater environmental awareness, we can also change the practices that we have, and that’s not just through food, but also the way that we engage with other aspects of our lives. How can we be more aware and more considerate of how our actions can affect the world around us?”

Zheng has spent her time at Binghamton doing what she can to help people around her. But meanwhile, she has discovered that her own story is interdisciplinary, and hopes that her many interests will continue to foster empathy in—and for—others.
“I always assumed going to school, that I had to have a very narrow understanding of where my career could go,” Zheng said. “If I’m in PPL then that means I have to be a lawyer, or if I’m an environmental studies major, I have to do something environmentally related. But this understanding has really shifted. I could do something that I care about and not have to follow the type of track that everybody else has. I can forge this new understanding of what my goal in life is through the work that I do.”