Since the early 1990s, feminist interventions in international law have sought to make sexual violence in wartime more visible, punishable and preventable. This dissertation focuses on the experiences of workers and the development of feminist analysis in the Interdiocesan Recuperation of Historical Memory project (REMHI, 1994-1998) and the Historical Clarification Commission (CEH, 1997-1999), two truth-telling processes in Guatemala that operated during these broader historical shifts. Often considered silence-breakers on sexual and other violations in the 36-year internal armed conflict, these historically-grounded processes provide a unique perspective on feminist transitional justice work, and important insights for those facing similar issues elsewhere. Drawing on interviews, textual analysis and a range of secondary sources, my dissertation makes three key contributions. First, given persistent international failures to turn gender visibility into accountability, I propose the conceptual tools of ‘participatory rhetoric’ and ‘worstness’ to clarify the representational limitations of a perpetual focus on visibility and ‘silence-breaking.’ Discourses of participation and victim-centeredness often conceal continuing structural limitations to marginalised women’s analytical involvement in rights work. Such conditions tend to channel women’s testimony into narratives of ahistorical victimisation, diminishing the historical significance of women’s wartime experiences and muting their postwar political demands. Second, I shift the methodological gaze of research on sexual violence from the trauma of victims to the mediating practices of rights workers. I argue that ongoing feminist efforts to expose sexual violence in Guatemala have driven broader challenges to the gendered hierarchies and exhausting practices of objective knowledge production favoured in human rights work. Using a discursive approach to rights, I show through a range of practices that workers in ‘peripheral’ sites like Guatemala are key actors, knowledge producers and innovators whose creative contributions should be major case studies informing transitional justice. Third, I highlight the practical adaptations and intense emotional labour required to perform high stakes truth-telling work successfully. With empirical support from interviews, I propose the framework of ‘urgency praxis’ to better account for the limited representational possibilities, the naturalised divisions of labour and the exhaustion of social movements that are products of this race-against-time form of rights defense.

Urgency Praxis, Sexual Violence and Feminist Knowledge Production in Guatemalan Truth-Telling

/pdf/pobres-negros-the-social-representations-and-commemorations-n4xrb8w347.pdf

"¡Pobres negros!" The social representations and commemorations of blacks in the river plate from the mid-nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth (and beyond)

This thesis presents a multi-disciplinary analysis of the ethics and politics of narrating trauma in institutional contexts. Drawing on the philosophical works of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, this thesis studies the norms, discourses and power relations that impact survivors’ narrations of trauma in, for example, medical and legal settings. Through a use and application of Foucault’s ideas, it is argued that while self-narration is a diversified activity, discourses and power relations function to regulate, circumscribe and constrain the forms in which traumatised individuals must narrate trauma in order for their narrative to be favourably treated by institutions who encounter trauma. Building on Foucault’s views and feminist applications of his work, it is shown how possibilities of resistance – or, of narrating otherwise – are co-existent with exercises of power, despite the power imbalance that typically characterises the encounter of traumatised individuals with institutions. This thesis also focuses on Butler’s work as complementing Foucault’s views on how self-narration is entangled with discourses and power relations, and considers how her ideas on vulnerability, precariousness and relationality inform her account of self-narration. Butler’s critique of the conception of self-narration based on the sovereignty, coherence and mastery of the narrating subject is elaborated further in relation to issues in trauma theory, where it is argued that narrative coherence often functions as a hegemonic norm. This analysis of narrative coherence is pursued by a study of how survivors’ testimonies of sexual trauma in legal and political contexts is circumscribed, facilitating certain forms of self-narration while silencing others. Narrative coherence is also shown to be a dominant norm in the psychological sciences, whose theories and practices have an influential bearing on how trauma is narrated by traumatised individuals. This thesis also presents an analysis of the different levels of inequality that determine the worth and currency of trauma narratives in the asylum seeking process. Tying together the different concerns pursued throughout this work, the thesis concludes with a critical consideration of the discursive

Narrating trauma : Michel Foucault, Judith Butler and the political ethics of self-narration

Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions:  Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).  Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes.  No Derivative Works You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Accounting for violence : the production, power and ownership of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda's archive

An extensive literature in political geography has examined the breakup of Yugoslavia and the contested politics of its successor states. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a focus of particular attention due to the scale of violence that took place there and its complexity as the most multicultural state in Yugoslavia. However, existing studies have tended to maintain a focus on wartime events and the post-war fragmentation of the country, overlooking the ways in which these are being reworked creatively outside of orthodox political channels. In light of growing geographical interest in art, the thesis examines how Bosnia is being reworked through artistic practices and the implications of this for understandings of the region. Conceptually, the thesis draws on feminist and subaltern approaches to geopolitics as well as debates in art theory and practice. Methodologically, it is based on ethnographic fieldwork and participation in ongoing art projects, as well as research on Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav art history. Engaging with artists and art practices, the thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of the alternative geographies, politics and identities of contemporary Bosnia. While recognising the role of overtly political art, the thesis emphasises various forms of antipolitical art practice that question dominant narratives, add new layers to understandings of place, and allow for the redefinition of identity. The thesis also demonstrates how, through alternative networks and practices, artists are engaged in a process of normalising space. The argument is not that past events should be ignored but that artists are creating opportunities for multiple engagements with contested places. The thesis therefore moves the political geography literature on Bosnia forward by highlighting under-researched practices and suggesting new avenues of inquiry. More broadly, the analysis has implications for the way the region is studied and suggests orientations for the study of art in contested contexts.

Exploring alternative geographies, politics and identities in Bosnia and Herzegovina through contemporary art practices

(2004). Trauma and the Memory of Politics. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 119-119.

Victoria Langland

Papers

Trauma and the Memory of Politics