title: Ireland and Victims: Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation?
deadline: 28/02/2010
keywords:
abstract: An international conference to be held at the University of Rennes 2,

Brittany, France.

9-11 September 2010


The Centre for Irish Studies based at the University of Rennes 2,

France, is soliciting papers for an interdisciplinary conference,

which will run from 9th-11th September 2010.

2009 has been marked by the publication on the island of Ireland of

two high-profile reports on very different aspects of victims. The

publication of the final Ryan Report on institutional abuse in the

Republic, and the Eames / Bradley report from the Consultative Group

on the Past set up in 2007 by the then Secretary of State for Northern

Ireland, Peter Hain, to ?find a way out of the shadows of the past?

have both sparked heated debate in academic and non-academic circles,

in Ireland and abroad.

In the run-up to and following the Good Friday Agreement, the issue of

how to address the grievances, demands and needs of victims of the 30

year conflict has proved highly sensitive, due to differing

perceptions of who the victims really are, of how best to approach

their needs, with some quarters even questioning the wisdom of

?stirring up? the past. Indeed, the steady stream of reports and

commissions investigating the victims of the Troubles is indicative of

the difficulty in reaching consensus on the most appropriate way(s) to

deal with the legacy of the past in order to provide for a more serene

future.


Patricia Lundy and Mark McGovern outline three distinct threads in

dealing with the past in post-conflict transformation today, all

concerned with key concepts of truth, justice, memory and healing:


?The therapeutic, archival and judicial imperatives can be taken as

defining the logic of post-conflict memory work today. They also

establish the, at times, contradictory, ends of truth recovery

processes: to find ?healing? for victims by giving them a public

voice; to re-write the record of the conflict and establish a new,

potentially shared narrative of the past; and to revisit past

injustice in order to establish an accountable, rights-based regime in

the future.? .


In a broader perspective, Ireland?s past and collective memories are

etched with examples of victims, victimhood, and victimisation: the

Famine victims, those who have become martyrs or heroes in both

nationalist and unionist narratives of the past, victims of the siege

of Derry, the Easter Rising, the battle of the Somme, Bloody Sunday,

the Hunger strikes and more recently, those groups left out of the

economic boom, and victims of the growing fear of otherness which

manifests itself in racism and hate crime.


It would now seem an opportune moment to devote a conference to this

general thematic in an Irish context.


We are particularly interested in hearing papers on :

-differing perceptions and definitions of victims and victimhood,

-the plight of victims,

-the reluctance of the State and other parties to delve into the past,

-the input of civic society in representing victims,

-revisiting past wrongs to move forward in the future,

-closure and victims as survivors,

-conflict transformation and peace-building,

-the portrayal of victims in literature, film and the arts


The cross-disciplinary nature of Irish Studies provides a wide range

of approaches from which to examine victims and victimhood. We welcome

submissions for 20-minute papers in English (preferably) or French

from numerous areas including Conflict and Peace Studies, Victims

studies, Law and Human Rights, History, Politics, Comparative

Analysis, Sociology, Psychology, Cultural Studies, Migration Studies,

Literature, Media and Film Studies, Visual Arts, Performing Arts...


We plan to publish a selection of papers in a special edition of the

Re-imagining Ireland series edited by Dr. Eamon Maher (Director,

National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies, Dublin).


Keynote Speakers

Keynote speakers confirmed to date:

Professor Marianne Elliott, O.B.E., F.B.A., Director of the Institute

of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool

Patricia MacBride, Commissioner for Victims and Survivors

Rita Duffy, visual artist


Paper Submission


Please submit your proposals (title and 300-word maximum abstract) by

28th February to Dr Lesley Lelourec, copying in Dr. Grainne

O?Keeffe-Vigneron with your institutional address.


lesley.lelourec@univ-rennes2.fr


grainne.o-keeffe@univ-rennes2.fr


Practical Details


Travel and accommodation details, as well as a registration form, will

be circulated in the Spring.



URL: univ-rennes2.fr