PAW-member Dr Ellen Stensrud convened the panel “Atrocity Discourses in Myanmar, Indonesia and Bosnia: Navigating empirical and methodological challenges in a heavily politicised field” at the 14th Conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (Phnom Penh, 14-19 July). The paper presenters discussed the legacies of genocide and the role that past mass atrocities play in contemporary politics. The panel also highlighted the methodological challenges of studying “genocide” in highly politicised fields.
Funding: The panel and subsequent workshop was in part funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Atrocity Discourses in Myanmar, Indonesia and Bosnia: Navigating empirical and methodological challenges in a heavily politicised field
“Keeping the Ghosts Alive”: The Perpetuation of Anti-Communist Rhetoric in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia (Claire Q. Smith, University of York)
Atrocity Discourses in Party Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Strategic Choice of Remembering Versus Forgetting the Past (Gyda M. Sindre, University of Cambridge)
Securitization of Islam in Myanmar: Security Discourse Analysis on the Mass Atrocities against Rohingya Muslims (Nickey Diamond, Fortify Rights)
The Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar: The Meanings of Genocide in Advocacy and Politics (Ellen E. Stensrud, Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies)
Workshop (July 19-21, 2019)
The subsequent workshop with the panel participants focused on brainstorming new ideas for a collaborative research programme aimed at bringing to the forefront how (past and present) genocides and mass atrocities impact on contemporary politics – especially on conflict resolution, reconciliation and democratisation.
From left: Nicky Diamond, Ellen Stensrud, Gyda M. Sindre, Claire Smith
Politics After War 