| abstract/call for papers: |
CRBC-CEI
Call for Papers
Ireland and Victims: Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation?
Deadline for submissions: 28th February 2010
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.
--
Dr. Lesley LELOUREC
Maître de Conférences / Senior Lecturer
Coordinatrice Echanges Internationaux
Département LEA
Université Rennes 2
place du recteur Henri le Moal
35043 RENNES CEDEX
|