Gender and War Trauma Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- Semiotics, Feminist Theory, Feminist International Relations, Civil-military relations

A b s t r a c t
This paper aims to uncover Turkish Cypriot women’s war experiences and integrate that knowledge into the public discourse. We argue that the omission of women’s war experiences thus far has served to sustain the mutually reinforcing alliance between patriarchy and nationalism, which we call patriarchal nationalism. Building on feminist standpoint theory, deconstruction of the official and hegemonic ‘his’tory of war poses challenges to the stronghold of patriarchy and ethnic nationalism in society by enga- ging women in the re-construction of history. Narratives of twenty women from differ- ent regions and backgrounds revealed common experiences that have been systematically silenced, memories that have been socially forgotten but could not be erased despite the dominant discourse that has denied their existence for decades. These experiences defy images of the ethno-national Glorious Self, protected by heroic and righteous men, and the Villainous Other. They also identify types of insecur- ity and victimization that have been excluded from traditional, gendered definitions of security. As these narratives contest fundamental tenets of patriarchy and nationalism, their contributions to the reconstruction of ‘reality’ and history carry prospects for the transformation of both gender and ethnic relations.

- by Umut Ozkaleli
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- Sexuality, Gender, Cyprus conflict, Gender and War Trauma

Diplomatic and peacekeeping initiatives by the international community in emerging cultures in conflict have failed to stem the violence and resolve the underlying conditions. Based primarily on political analysis, such initiatives do not address the underlying causes of the civil war at the individual, family, and tribal levels. This paper examines the psychological and sociological motivations for the violence within and between the Arab and African tribes of Darfur, to include motivation exploration of ethnic defections, failing cultural identity markers, and the effects of cognitive dissonance of the personal and social identities of the Darfur tribes. Research suggests that the identities of the African and Arab tribes are deeply contested over ethnicity, tribalism, religion, race and the generational memory that historical narratives provide. This fundamental identity conflict is overlaid by decades of violent physical, psychological and emotional assault upon the population. The result is a fundamental change of the psycho-sociology of tribal life and threatens disintegration and disestablishment of large group identity. The resulting societal and leadership breakdown of and within the tribes creates conditions of warlord-ism commonly found in ungoverned states such as Somalia. The paper concludes that the international community will ultimately fail unless measures are taken to create conditions for survival of the tribes physically, psychologically and sociologically.

- by PATRICK J A M E S CHRISTIAN
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- Sociology, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Social Psychology
- by Deirdre Barrett
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- Military History, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Psychology

A true life story of facing war time conflict internally and externally to overcome extreme trauma, focusing on post lobotomy coping mechanisms and empowerment through reframing dynamics situations and sculpting the situation into your... more

- by Amber Coe
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- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Positive Psychology

This article explores how women fighters tell their stories in relation to the dominant state narratives about a partisan war. In addition to engaging their individual stories, it explores how they speak, write and act as memory entrepreneurs, creating collective memory about a past that they have experienced instead of allowing others to select actors and events for historical narratives. It argues that memory regimes and gender cultures are intertwined, and that gender cultures are essential in understanding the cultural choices made by memory entrepreneurs in memory making. The article analyses the oral testimonies and written memoirs of two women, Rakhel’ Margolis and Aldona Vilutienė (neé Sabaitytė), who were partisans in Lithuania during the Second World War (Margolis) and its aftermath (Sabaitytė) and created the first museums dealing with the Second World War and its legacy in post-Soviet Lithuania. Read as stories about what it was like to be a woman during a partisan war, the narratives include some common themes: widespread betrayal, the difficult physical conditions that they had to endure as women and the vulnerability that came with these experiences. Read as stories told by memory entrepreneurs, the narratives reveal that the two women acted as mnemonic warriors fighting for competing memory regimes built on opposing gender ideologies.

- by Dovile Budryte
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- Gender Studies, History of Museums, Memory Studies, World War II
- by Mahinur Aksehir
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- History, Literature, Virginia Woolf, First World War
- by Maria Stern and +1
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- Sexual Violence, Military Sociology, Gender and War Trauma, DRC

В данный сборник вошли статьи, анализирующие травму не только как
единовременное событие, резко изменившее жизнь человека, но и как процесс,
который продолжает влиять на отношение людей к их прошлому, настоящему
и будущему. По мнению авторов сборника, травму невозможно свести только к
акту нарушения – или даже полного разрушения – привычного образа жизни и
сложившихся моделей самовосприятия. Травмирующей оказывается тщетность
попыток сформулировать приемлемые причины этого неожиданного разрыва
ткани социальной жизни. В разных контекстах и с помощью разных подходов
авторы сборника демонстрируют способы, с помощью которых люди учатся
жить с травмой – не подавляя и не вытесняя ее негативное воздействие, но находя для нее место в своей судьбе и в исторической жизни.

- by Elena Trubina
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- Social Psychology, Trauma Studies, Literature and Trauma, Gender and War Trauma

Somali society can be characterized as patriarchal ‘to the bone’. Despite tremendous political and economic changes in the 20th century, and from colonial to post-colonial rule, the situation of women changed only minimally. In fact, some authors argue that women enjoyed even less independence from male ‘wards’ during the democratic and later revolutionary governments from 1960 to 1991 that were promulgating modernization and gender equality, at least rhetorically. Paradoxically, the most substantial changes regarding gender relations that led to a considerable empowerment of women in the social, economic and political sphere were triggered by the tragedy of civil war and state collapse. Women had to bear the brunt of the fighting. But they also became actively involved in armed conflict as combatants, motivators of their men and also as peace-makers. Women also took over more economic responsibilities and fought their way into politics. This article traces the challenges and opportunities that the civil war and the collapse of the state provided for women, arguing that the Somali tragedy provided a blessing in disguise at least for some women who gained social, economic and political power. Still, what we are observing is not a revolution but at best an incidental ‘reform’. If this will eventually lead to more just gender relations in the long run remains to be seen.

- by Markus V . Hoehne
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- Civil War, Women and Gender Issues in Islam, Somalia, Gender and War Trauma

Abstract
If political activities (demonstration, revolution, war) can be understood as forms of ritual performance in which temporary social hegemonic inversions typically are followed by competing efforts to restore structure or define a new structure, then under what conditions would they offer potential for changes in family dynamics and gender roles? The past few years in Yemen have witnessed extraordinary political and socioeconomic turbulence, from the 2011 Arab Spring revolution to the 2015 brutal war. Yemeni families have been significantly impacted in myriad ways, including displacement, family separation, poverty, violence, unemployment, sectarian strife, disruption of education, and mental illness. Men and women have demonstrated a high level of public activism during the Arab Spring and the war, further altering family dynamics and the gendered social tapestry, in a highly patriarchal country. Social “disorder,” including modification of gender roles, is often challenged by those desiring to restore “order,” the “traditional” family structure, and patriarchy. This study analyzes gendered dimensions of the “Yemen Spring” and the subsequent war, with a particular focus on the link between gendered family dynamics and the sociopolitical landscape, also considering the role religion and religious groups play.

“Carnivalesque” is perhaps the best, if not the only way to describe what was going on at the Bab al-Saghir Cemetery that hot summer afternoon in 2008. In front of the graves of the Prophet’s wives, Shi‘i pilgrims could buy Viagra, sex-enhancement creams, and massage oils. Sexual mores were normally strictly guarded in Syria and medicines were usually available only at pharmacies. Yet, there in one of the most historically and religiously significant cemeteries in Damascus, makeshift vendors sold an array of sex-related items. In order to analyze this phenomenon, this article draws on Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the “carnivalesque.” First, it provides a short background of Twelver Shi‘ism in Syria and explains how Shi‘i religious tourism encouraged the development of black markets. Then, it examines how Shi‘i pilgrimage, which occurred all year around, but peaked during Muharram, fostered an attitude that liberated Shi‘is from prevalent social norms and emphasized “grotesque” imagery and practices, including blood, death, and sex. In short, it follows Michael Taussig’s call for anthropologists to attend to the transgressive aspects of religious ritual.

- by Edith Szanto
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- Religion, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Religion

According to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law, and the archetypical state of exception is the Nazi concentration camp. At the same time, Agamben notes that boundaries have become blurred since then, such that even spaces like refugee camps can be thought of as states of exception because they are both inside and outside the law. This article draws on the notion of the state of exception in order to examine the Syrian refugee camp cum shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab as well as to analyze questions of religious authority, ritual practice, and pious devotion to Sayyida Zaynab. Though Sayyida Zaynab and many of her Twelver Shiʿi devotees resemble Agamben's figure of homo sacer, who marked the origin of the state of exception, they also defy Agamben's theory that humans necessarily become animal-like, leading nothing more than “bare lives” (or zoē) in states of exception.

- by Edith Szanto
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- Critical Theory, Religion, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology

In the early morning of April 25 1982 some 500 or so women walked slowly and silently up Anzac Parade towards the Australian War Memorial. They walked behind a banner that read ""IN MEMORY OF ALL WOMEN OF ALL COUNTRIES RAPED IN ALL WARS". The women stopped at the top of the Parade in front of a cenotaph. In a short ceremony one of the gathered women read a letter written by a woman about the experience of rape in war and another woman made a statement about the significance of remembering women raped in war. Then a wreath was laid and one minute's silence was observed. The women then sang a song called "Lest We Forget" while some from the group laid individual wreaths and flowers. This chapter explores a Women Against Rape interventions in the early 1980s in terms of commemoration. It analyses what it meant to for women, in particular feminist women, to intervene in one of the central mourning rituals of the nation. It also considers the 'national' reaction to the womens' commemorative intervention.

RESUMEN: Las cárceles son un microcosmos y fiel reflejo de los valores existentes fuera de sus muros. En nuestras sociedades occidentales el sistema carcelario representa la realidad capitalista, colonial y heteropatriarcal que hay en éstas. A pesar de la invisibilización y silencio por parte del discurso hegemónico, resulta necesario develar toda la complejidad y los abusos de poder que se suceden al interior de las mismas a través de sus principales protagonistas. Tras un recorrido histórico y una contextualización inicial sobre las prisiones, se analiza el caso peruano y en particular de las mujeres integrantes del Partido Comunista del Perú-Sendero Luminoso (PCP-SL) y del Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA), ambos grupos armados insurgentes que le declararon la guerra al Estado peruano a finales del pasado siglo XX. Las investigaciones académicas al respecto son escasas, especialmente desde un enfoque crítico feminista. El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar las experiencias carcelarias de estas mujeres que por su género y condición de 'vencidas' del conflicto han sido silenciadas, cuando no tachadas de "crueles, locas y desviadas", justificando así cualquier tipo de acción vejatoria contra ellas al interior de las cárceles. Se enmarca dentro de una investigación más amplia llevada a cabo por la misma autora. La pluralidad metodológica abordada comprende desde el análisis documental hasta el trabajo de campo realizado en Perú (2007-2009). Las diferentes herramientas de investigación cualitativa utilizadas son entrevistas en profundidad, reuniones informales de grupo en la cárcel, trabajo etnográfico, observación y ac ción participante. Los resultados demuestran que el castigo-formal e informal-contra las mujeres encarceladas en Perú a consecuencia del conflicto armado sigue basándose en estereotipos y discriminaciones en clave de género. El presente artículo ejemplifica en el caso peruano una problemática mayor y de alcance global como es la realidad androcéntrica y patriarcal del sistema penal y judicial. // * ABSTRACT: Prisons are a microcosm and a reflection of the values existing outside their walls. In our Western societies, the punitive system represents the capitalist, colonial and heteropatriarchal reality. Despite the invisibility and silence from the hegemonic discourse, it is necessary reveal the complexity and power abuses that occur within the prisons according to their protagonists. After a brief contextualization through the origin of prisons around the world in contemporary societies I focus in Latin America, particularly in Peru. I analyse the memory of women during the last Peruvian internal armed conflict. This paper focuses on prison experiences of women of the Peruvian Communist Party-Shining Path (PCP-SL for its acronym in Spanish) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA in Spanish), both armed groups that declared war on the Peruvian State at the end of the twentieth century. The aim of this paper is to analyze the prison experiences of women who have been silenced because of their gender and because they were 'defeated' from the Peruvian armed conflict. They also are seen as "cruel, crazy and deviant", justifying any type of humiliating treatment within the jail. This investigation is approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, emphasising qualitative methodology. The fieldwork was conducted in Peru (2007-2009) through a documentary analysis and diverse qualitative research tools. I have carried out in- depth interviews and informal group meetings in and outside prison, as well as participant observation and ethnographic work. The results show that the punishment, both formal and informal, against women incarcerated in Peru as a result of the armed conflict is based on stereotypes and discrimination biased by gender reason. The Peruvian case is an example of the androcentric and patriarchal reality of the punishment and judicial system.

- by Marta Romero-Delgado
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- Feminism, Gender and War Trauma, Prisons, Feminismo
- by Ángel Alcalde
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- Gender History, Contemporary History, Combat Veterans, Women and War Studies

During the onslaught of the Islamic caliphate on Kobanî, Syria, media outlets across the globe broadcast pictures of brave and often unveiled Kurdish women fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a quintessentially male force of destruction. The images of women fighting Islamist male aggressors aroused outrage, admiration, and pity among observers. But had all Kurdish fighters been male or had women fought for ISIS, viewers might have reacted differently. To examine some of the most widely disseminated gendered pictures and videos of the Syrian uprising in the media, this article draws on Mohja Kahf’s three categories, which typify how Muslim women, Arab women, or both are perceived by the Anglophone reading and viewing public: the first is victims; the second, escapees; and the third, pawns of patriarchy and male power. While this typology helps in examining gendered images of the Syrian uprising, it also obscures the socioeconomic realities on the ground.

- by Edith Szanto
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- Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Anthropology, Visual propaganda
- by James O'Neill
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- Gender Studies, Women and War Studies, Gaelic Ireland, Irish History

This essay reads the Fritz Lang film noir, Human Desire (1954) as an intertextual reworking of La Bete humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938), in turn an adaptation of Emile Zola's eponymous novel (1890). I argue that whereas Renoir's film worries about the impending World War II, Lang's grapples with the noir legacy of a post-war world devoid of hope. This traps Zola's novel in a middle ground: the novel is set on the brink of the French destruction in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, but is written twenty years afterward.

- by Walter Metz
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- Film Studies, Masculinity Studies, Film Noir, Naturalism
- by Golan Moskowitz
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- Queer Studies, Family studies, Trauma Studies, Intergenerational Relationships

The war in Ukraine may be redrawing the contours of our world, after the exhaustion not only of the Cold War, but also of the post-Cold War period (not cold anymore, if it ever was) from 1989 till now. Putin's onslaught on the former Soviet republic that once had, like Belarus, a seat in the UN during the socialist period, is motivated by nationalism and is expansionist, denying among other things the rule of law and international law – like any “illiberal democracy.” But a war is a war, and no war can be good. Defensive wars are understandable, though no war is clean. To plead for a just war means being already within the war logic. Wars paradoxically need to be prevented in anticipation and in principle, they cannot be stopped, or if they are, it is within the same logic and excessive of violence. They are part of a masculinist militarist "culture" that needs to be deconstructed and prevented.

This study examines women’s role in Nigeria’s fratricidal war that ended in 1970 by debunking several myths on the subject matter. With the war’s end, scholars have been unable to put in proper perspective the role of women in that conflict; instead, the generality of people prefer to live in denial by consigning the role of women to obscurity and oblivion. Male-dominated narratives of bravery and invincibility depict a shut-down mentality against the womenfolk whose wartime activities count for nothing. This seeming social exclusion and marginalization of femininity are very pronounced. Historical and oral evidence abound but remains mostly unacknowledged on successful women traders in times of conflict. Several women gave a good account of themselves during the war it would have been a measure of fairness in the civil war narratives if a few of these women had received the slightest mention. The above is a glaring lacuna and thus a significant challenge and concern for this study. The study used mainly oral sources interlaced with secondary materials and based on historical narrative style in giving relevance to women’s role in the war. It however came with the consequences of a moral dilemma.

- by VICTOR UKAOGO
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- Gender and War Trauma, Gender inequality, Androcentrism, Misogyny
- by PATRICK J A M E S CHRISTIAN
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- Sociology, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Social Psychology

Despite the fact that women were active in almost all fields of the underground movement in WWII Poland and
constituted around 22 percent of participants of the Warsaw Uprising, works on the event written after the war
did not fully integrate them into the historical record. Several efforts to write women back into the history of the
uprising were undertaken by female combatants themselves, but these were not informed by a gender
perspective and sought to merely add women to the official picture of the past. By introducing gender as a
category of analysis, this paper seeks to transform the picture itself. The main aim of this article is to analyze the
gender politics of the Warsaw Uprising: the way specific notions of femininity and masculinity were used by the
military to mobilize men and women for the war effort and at the same time sustain the masculine character of
the army. Drawing on both archival research and biographical materials (interviews and written testimonies of
former insurgents), the article exposes the various militarized roles women played in the uprising and sheds
light on their ambiguous position in the army.

- by Weronika Grzebalska
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- Gender Studies, Gender History, Second World War, Warsaw Uprising

Bosnia and Herzegovina seems to have lost the international community's attention and not much attention has􏰇 been recently paid to the ongoing justice and peacebuilding processes. Except for a few scholars, the current transitional justice process and its impacts on Bosnian women are neglected. There has been little analysis with relation to what happens in the long-term in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the survivors of wartime violence. Focusing only on rape and other forms of wartime sexual violence has resulted in impunity for many other forms of international human rights violations occurring during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Economic and social rights violations, for instance, remain 􏰂􏰃unaddressed. The􏰇se 􏰃neglected women's human rights violations continue in different and/or aggravated forms. This study aims to illustrate the ongoing violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina and recommends solutions by engaging with the interviews conducted in the country in 2017.

- by Dr Ebru Demir
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- Bosnia, Women and War Studies, Gender and War Trauma, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hundert Jahre nach Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges ist immer noch eine ganze Bandbreite an Folgen dieser weltweiten Katastrophe zu erforschen – vor allem kulturell und sozial. Das Trauma des Erlebnisses des Ersten Weltkrieges zog auch in Bezug auf Geschlechterverhältnisse große Veränderungen und Umwälzungen in einer großen Vielfältigkeit mit sich. Das Trauma der Fronterfahrung brachte Millionen von Männern in eine Identitätskrise, da es unmöglich war, die Vorstellungen der heroischen und furchtlosen Kriegers, das die Propaganda proklamierte, aufrecht zu erhalten. Dies führte unter anderem zu furchtbaren Kriegsneurosen, die unter dem Titel der „Kriegshysterie“ ein Massenphänomen wurden. Einige Männer reagierten auf die Unmöglichkeit des Erfüllens „männlicher Eigenschaften“ mit dem Experimentieren mit Geschlechtergrenzen an der Front und in den Kriegsgefangenenlagern sowie mit homosexuellen Beziehungen, die oft im Kontext der Kameradschaft Akzeptanz fanden. In den Kriegsgefangenenlagern, in denen eine komplette Isolation von Frauen herrschte, spielten Männer im Theater und darüber hinaus Frauenrollen. Einige Männer entdeckten in diesem Kontext ihre eigene Weiblichkeit und Transsexualität, und das Kriegsgefangenenlager wurde zum Schutzraum, in dem in Abwesenheit von Frauen weibliche Erscheinungsformen willkommen waren und Sehnsüchte hervorriefen.
Für die daheimgebliebenen Frauen als auch die Frauen an der Front bot der Erste Weltkrieg ebenso eine Neuinterpretation der eigenen Geschlechteridentität. An der Heimatfront erlebten viele Frauen eine vorher nie dagewesene Selbstständigkeit, die zwar nur ein Kriegsprovisorium war, aber im Bewusstsein der Frauen ihre Spuren hinterließ. Einige maskuline Frauen zogen als Männer verkleidet in den Krieg, um in diesem Kontext der eigenen Maskulinität Ausdruck zu verschaffen, ihren „Mann zu stehen“ und trotz und wegen ihrer Maskulinität Ansehen zu bekommen. Einige wurden erst nach ihrem Tod als biologisch weiblich enttarnt.
Meine in dieser Hausarbeit untersuchte These besagt, dass von der weitläufgen Krise der Männlichkeit nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg die Weiblichkeit nicht unangetastet blieb. Letztlich löste die Abwesenheit des jeweils anderen Geschlechts auf beiden Seiten Prozesse aus, die in der Nachkriegskultur in Deutschland und in der ganzen Welt neue Geschlechterkonstitutionen nach sich zog. Man kann daher auf Seite der Frauen von einer Art Simultanphänomen sprechen: Während das heroische und dominante Bild des Mannes durch die Kriegserfahrung nicht mehr gültig bleiben konnte, drängte diese Veränderung das weibliche Geschlechtes weg vom bloßen Femininen, und Frauen experimentierten in
höherem Maße mit Maskulinität. Sehr deutlich zeigt sich das in der Modeerscheinung der „Neuen Frau“ und der „Vermännlichten Frau“, die vor allem in Berlin der Zwanziger Jahre im Zentrum gesellschaftlicher Diskussion stand. Ich sehe diese Modeerscheinung in der Weimarer Republik in einer Linie mit der Erfahrung des Ersten Weltkrieges sowohl auf männlicher als auch auf weiblicher Seite und werde versuchen aufzuzeigen, dass die „Neue Frau“ ein zentraler Indikator für den Zusammenbruch alter Geschlechterrollen in dieser Zeit ist und wie der Krieg die „alte Ordnung“ auch im Sinne der Geschlechterverhältnisse zum Einsturz brachte.
Ich werde im Folgenden zuerst das Phänomen auf männlicher Seite beleuchten: wie der Krieg die Männlichkeit in eine Identitätskrise stürzte und Männer sich in diesem Kontext dem Femininen zuwandten. Danach gebe ich eine Einleitung in die Geschichte weiblichen Cross- Dressings und der maskulinen Frau im Allgemeinen. Es folgt ein Überblick über die verschiedenen neuen Erfahrungen von Frauen im Ersten Weltkrieg, mit besonderem Augenmerk auf die Folge der Abwesenheit der Männer. Zuletzt folgt eine Analyse des Kulturphänomens der „Vermännlichung der Frau“ in der Kultur der Weimarer Republik.
Auch, wenn die Geschichte maskuliner Frauen in der von mir untersuchten Zeitspanne nicht ohne homosexuelle und transsexuelle Partizipation zu denken ist, spreche ich im Folgenden (falls nicht anders gekennzeichnet) von heterosexuellen Frauen, die die Darstellung männlich konnotierter Kleidung und Manier aus von Sexualität weitläufig entkoppelten Gründen genießen. Gerade in den Zwanziger Jahren hat sich gezeigt, dass die Darstellung maskuliner Manier nicht zwingend mit der tatsächlichen, sexuell-körperlichen Identifkation mit dem anderen Geschlecht einher gehen muss, sondern als breites Modephänomen Frauen verschiedenster Sexuualität, Schichten und Hintergründe ansprach. Cross-Dressing zeigt sich als ein Ausdruck sich verschiebender und sich wandelnder Geschlechtergrenzen - eine Folge des Traumas des Ersten Weltkrieges und daraus entstehender gesellschaftlicher Wünsche und Ängste, befeuert von der Erfahrung der Abwesenheit des anderen Geschlechtes während des Krieges.

- by Johanna Warda
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- Transgender Studies, Transsexuality, World War I, First World War
- by Jacek Debiec and +1
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- Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

Contemporary British theatre has been saturated with war narratives and the ensuing state of trauma in response to the chaotic atmosphere of the century. Besides a wide array of plays depicting the deleterious impact of war on returning soldiers, the contemporary stage has also witnessed performances embodying the personal and collective traumas of war-torn societies. Playwright of the multi-award-winning play Further than the Furthest Thing (2000), Zinnie Harris subtly treat different faces and consequences of war in their dramatic outputs. Among them, Harris’ Midwinter (2004) attempts to portray trauma of an unnamed war engraved on the bodies and psyches of the people from soldiers to children in an unnamed county. Drawing upon contemporary theories of trauma, this article interprets the different manifestations of war trauma in the characters of Midwinter and probes the difficulty of recovering trauma for the people who disavow the reality of war and trauma.

- by Orkideh Behrouzan
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- Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Humanities

In this world it can be very difficult to feel safe and be free of anxiety. This is ok. Most of us find ways to cope with this background feeling that we cannot fully ignore by distracting ourselves from the root issue.... we are denying our right to be authentic with ourselves. What we feel is who we are at the moment.... and who we are is always changing. Emotional authenticity is more healing and effective than simply applying an emotional band-aid. What does this mean? .....

- by Shivanand Howard
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- Psychology, Personality Psychology, Social Psychology, Health Psychology
- by Jean-Michel Sourd
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- Critical Theory, American Literature, Neuroscience, Sociology
- by Hugo J. Morin
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- Trauma Studies, Gender, Gender and War Trauma, Hiroshima Mon Amour

Dreams about 9/11 -- Paper presented at the 19th Annual International Conference for The International Association for the Study of Dreams, Tufts University, Medford, Boston, Massachusetts; 05/2002 An analysis of trauma dreams collected... more

- by Deirdre Barrett
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- Neuroscience, Sociology, Political Sociology, Sociology of Disaster

By applying terminology from trauma theory and a methodological approach from comics scholarship, this essay discusses three graphic autobiographies of women. These are A Game for Swallows by Zeina Abirached (trans. Edward Gauvin, 2012), We are on our Own by Miriam Katin (2006), and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (trans. Anjali Singh, 2004). Two issues are at the centre of the investigation: the strategies by which these works engage in the much-debated issues of representing gendered violence, and the representation of the ways traumatized daughters and their mothers deal with the identity crises caused by war.

- by Eszter Szép
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- Gender Studies, Comics Studies, Identity (Culture), Trauma Studies
- by Dustin Howes
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- Feminist Theory, Peace and Conflict Studies, War Studies, Liberalism

For more than the obvious reasons, the First World War was a devastating experience for Europe. As the first war in history in which the death toll would be immense – due to the extensive use of weapons of mass destruction – it was a traumatic experience even for those who were not directly involved in the armed conflict. The dehumanization introduced by the war caused disillusionment regarding the ideals of enlightenment and the progress myth of the Modernity Project. One of the preeminent writers of the period, Virginia Woolf was among those writers who were deeply traumatized and disillusioned by the experience, even though she was not an active participant in the conflict. In her novels Jacob's Room, Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse she offers a depiction of gender polarization and women as traumatized victims of the war. This paper, thus, aims to evaluate the First World War and the trauma and disillusionment caused by it as experienced by women through the novels of Virginia Woolf.

- by Mahinur Aksehir
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- Virginia Woolf, First World War, Gender and War Trauma, War Trauma and Literature

This chapter analyses the gendered dimension of women’s violence in conflict zones, as emerges from accounts and testimonies of female ex-soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF, or in Hebrew Tzahal). My purpose is to outline the major aspects in which gender relations are crucial for the understanding of the configurations of violence in the military, and the ways this is enacted by young Israeli women soldiers belonging to various units and ranks, carrying out combat or combat support roles during their compulsory service.

- by Ilaria Simonetti
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- Gender Studies, Testimony, Visual Anthropology, Peace and Conflict Studies
- by Maria Eriksson Baaz
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- Psychology, Gender Studies, Social Sciences, Sexual Abuse

In her article “Trauma, Ethics, and the Body at War in Brittain, Borden and Bagnold,” Carolina Sánchez-Palencia Carazo discusses how the autobiographical accounts of the conflict by Vera Brittain, Enid Bagnold and Mary Borden, inspired by their experiences as voluntary nurses in the front,deconstruct the meanings of femininity, masculinity and patriotism, contesting the official rhetoric of passivity that defined the role of women in World War I. Their extreme engagement with the precariousness and vulnerability of others elicits an empathic response that can be interpreted through
Judith Butler (2004; 2009), Emmanuel Lévinas (1969) and Alan Badiou’s (1993) ethics of alterity. Against the abstract assumptions of honor and heroism in many male war accounts, these women’s face-to-face encounter with the suffering bodies impels them to an intersubjective relation defined by sensibility and affectivity. Their exposure to the limits of (in)humanity implies a drive towards commonality that cannot be overlooked and suggests a gendered intervention in the body politic in which the war/peace, front/home binaries are necessarily redefined. Their texts are also “bodies in transit” inasmuch as they move between Victorian conventional order and a sense of Modernistfragmentariness evoking the distorted anatomies of the combatants they
nursed. Re-visiting Brittain, Bagnold and Borden from the critical perspectives of the
Ethical Turn and Trauma Studies is essential for a reconceptualization of war and of the intricacies of its representation..

The notion of state failure or rather what Verhoeven coins the 'orthodox failed states Narrative” posits that “failed states” automatically mean chaos, terrorism and insecurity in the globe. This narrative is problematic in many senses in that it legitimises for state to state interference all in defence of global security. This narrative obscures the possibility of a functioning government that does not subscribe to the general idea of a formal state with legislature, a judiciary and the western recognised government by this it obscures the possibility of an alternative governance. This narrative basically protects state security more than human security itself. It also carries within it a very backward strict idea of state rule. In this essay I will argue the above by focusing on two obscurities, though there are many obscurities this essay will focus two obscurities that are created by the war on terror discourse that hinder international community progress. I will argue the two obscurities using Somalia as an example of how the obscurity on alternative governance which is what Al-Shabaab is doing hinders a more inclusive, familiar bottom up style of governing from happening in the international community. I will also argue using Somalia and various other examples that the war on terror discourse obscures the chaos, terrorism and violence that happens in other states, therefore bringing to question the real reason for the discourse on war on terror. This essay may not answer the real reason behind war on terror however it is an attempt with the second obscurity to bring to light the assertion that the discourse itself obscures much of what is human security in the attempt to defend state security. These obscurities are also discussed under the collapse of the state and collapse of the Union Islamists Courts as local factors that led to the legitimacy of Al-Shabbabs. The legitimization strategies of the Al-Shabaab are discussed to show the ultimate legitimization of Al-Shabaab following the collapse of the state and the Union of Islamists Court. The UIC is also used as a prelude to introduce the obscurity of an alternative government created by War on Terror.

Tracing the historical trajectories of war traumatology in Turkey, this paper develops a genealogy of the recent institutionalization of the diagnostic category of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Turkish military psychiatry and the state’s welfare system. A complex blend of economic, political, and cultural dynamics long prevented trauma from becoming an officially recognized category of military medical diagnosis in Turkey. I argue that the Turkish state’s denial of war trauma in general and PTSD in particular should be read not as a historical lag or a conceptual lack, but as an overdetermined historical specificity that needs to be understood in relation to the particularities of specific military conflicts, welfare and medical institutional histories, and moral and political economies. I show how PTSD has not simply replaced existing local categories of mental illness, but entered into complex relations of mutual symbiosis and competition with them. Shifting the terms of scholarly debates on the globalization of PTSD from the question of cultural difference to the political, moral, economic, and therapeutic work of locally embedded psychiatric categories, this paper contributes to the literatures on political violence, trauma, medicalization, and militarism in Turkey and beyond.