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CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Facing a Violent Past - Dealing with history and memory in Conflict Resolution
The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday, December 4th, 2015
Contact information
Program for History, Memory and Conflict
School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
George Mason University
Metropolitan Building
3434 Washington Blvd, 5th Floor, Room 5131
Arlington, VA 20001
Contact Email: [email protected]
Date: April 22nd, 2016
Location: George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia
Subject Fields: Conflict resolution, transitional justice and reconciliation
The Program on History, Memory, and Conflict at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University is accepting proposals for scholarly papers and panel submissions on a topic related to the core themes of their upcoming conference. Participants are encouraged to propose panels of a maximum of three presenters; however, individual, stand-along papers will be considered and, if accepted for presentation, will be grouped together will similar papers to form a panel.
Description
Increasingly, societies have focused on the necessity of addressing gross violations of human rights experienced under authoritarian rule and atrocity crimes committed during violent internal conflict in both the recent and more distant past. There are societies that have sought to confront the legacy of violence through the revision of history education, multi-level reconciliation practices, and the establishment of macro-level transitional justice mechanisms such as Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, along with more community based truth-telling approaches. Yet, other societies have institutionalized processes of amnesia and denial. Despite the establishment of various top down and grassroots mechanisms, societies that have experienced destructive violence may continue to be fragmented with multiple and often contested narratives of their past. Moreover, the politicization of historical narratives and processes of collective memorialization have the ability to establish repeated patterns of exclusion and inclusion from the collective process of healing and reconciling with the past. These processes of addressing the legacy of violent conflict are ultimately shaped by interconnected factors related to history, identity, power and leadership, and institutions, along with international factors.
To that end, Papers are invited that explore the relationship between history, memory and conflict resolution. Researchers, scholars and practitioners are encouraged to present papers on topics related to reconciliation processes and peacebuilding that explore mechanisms for identifying how the legacy of the past is manipulated through processes of memorialization and memorial construction to entrench singular narratives and recreate cycles of violence; for monitoring and addressing the politicization of historical narratives and collective memory and; for strengthening the interconnectivity between existing mechanisms to address the legacy of violence, along with exploring marginalized dimensions of reconciling with the past.
This conference aims to explore particular issues relation to history, memory and violence.
Possible themes include:
- Power and identity construction in the aftermath of violence
- Narratives of victimhood
- The politicization of history and memory
- Memorials as sites of remembrance and contestation
- Amnesia and the politics of silence
- Denial and identity formation
- Collective trauma and healing
- Gender and reconciliation
- Religion and reconciliation
- History Education and transitional justice
- Diaspora communities and the international expansion of memory
Please follow the guidelines below to submit your proposals:
a. An abstract describing the proposed paper and its relevance to the overall theme of the conference (300 words maximum), along with keywords (maximum ten keywords or phrases)
b. Complete contact information, including a 2-3 line bio
c. The abstract and bio/contact should be sent as a single e-mail attachment
d. Required technology for the presentation (Note that the conference site is pre-installed with a computer and internet access).