Event
CfP: Regarding the Past – Agency, Power and Representation, Conference in Marburg, Germany
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - Monday, April 30, 2012
Conference at the Philipps-University Marburg, 01.-03.November 2012“Regarding the Past – Agency, Power and Representation”
After the world-wide proliferation of Transitional Justice mechanisms within the last twenty years the decision every post-conflict society has to make is not anymore about if to deal with its violent past but much more how to fulfill this task. Therefore, not only the past itself but also questions of how this past is regarded and dealt with has become a prominent research focus in all branches of Social Sciences.
Processes of dealing with the past have become a field of engagement for International Organizations, transnational advocacy networks, party politics, civil societies and last but not least those who have actually been affected by violence and repression. Advocates of the Transitional Justice paradigm predicate an effect on peace-building and reconciliation as much as on democratization and rule of law reform while International Law has been developed to prevent all sorts of mass violence and aggression. Yet, the agendas of different actors and their underlying concepts of justice, peace and reconciliation do not always go hand in hand. Debates on how to remember the violent past and how to deal with its legacy can lead to new conflicts on all levels, be it local, national or international. The question remains in how far Transitional Justice processes are designed to meet the needs of those they claim to be designed for and/or of those they are designed by.
We invite empirical as well as theoretical papers from disciplines such as political science, anthropology, sociology, psychology, history and law which take into account the discursive and practical level of Transitional Justice processes by focusing on issues of:
- agency, power and representation within the design and conduct of Transitional Justice mechanisms
- an assessment of the assumptions about the impact of Transitional Justice processes
- the nexus between international developments of the Transitional Justice tool-box and realities on the ground
- heterogeneity and polyphony in claims and concepts concerning justice, truth, reconciliation and memory
- knowledge generation and data acquisition about post-conflict justice
With the Center for Conflict Studies and the International Center for War Crimes Studies as well as the PhD colloquium of the Marburg Research Academy “Transitional Justice after mass violence” the Philipps-University in Marburg has become an expert pool for research and academic debate on processes of dealing with the past. We invite all TJ-interested researchers to share their insights in this inspiring environment. Please send an abstract (max. 300 words) including your institutional affiliation to transitional-justice@staff.uni-marburg.de. Papers are accepted in English and German. Deadline is 30th April 2012. The conference is organized by the PhD colloquium of the Marburg Research Academy (MARA) “Transitional Justice after mass violence” The organizing committee: Annika Henrizi, Sylvia Karl, Eva Ottendörfer, Prof. Dr. Anika Oettler, Kathleen Rother and Sarah Sott.
Photo Credit: Art: Zoo Project / Photo: Sondos Belhassen
