Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, founder of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation, is setting up a Centre for Advanced Genocide Research at the university.

The centre will investigate the conditions leading to genocides and how to intervene to prevent the slaughter.It will focus on three areas: resistance to genocide; violence, emotion and behavioral change; and digital genocide studies.

Mr Spielberg said: “The USC Shoah Foundation has collected and indexed 52,000 testimonies and established educational programmes. Now comes the next significant chapter, one that establishes the institute as one of the leading centres for the study of the Holocaust and genocides.”