5 Experiential Epistemologies: Embedding the Lived Experience of Women Survivors
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Victoria Canning
Abstract
As this book has charted so far, there are various ways in which violence can be interpreted and recognized. For the most part, academic and legalistic frameworks often depend heavily on fairly narrow legislative definitions, specifically the Convention Against Torture and its protocols, which I defined as orthodox legalism in Chapter 1. Those working at grassroot or practitioner level more often combine lived experience with legal understandings, defined as legalist hybridity, or indeed a more free-flowing focus on experience as the most significant factor in approaching survivors of torturous violence, defined as experiential epistemologies.
This chapter moves to focus almost exclusively the latter of these three categories. It is here that I draw in the oral histories of women who have survived violence at various stages of their lives, all of whom, at the time of undertaking oral histories and ethnographic research (2016–2018) were seeking asylum or had recently obtained refugee status.
Abstract
As this book has charted so far, there are various ways in which violence can be interpreted and recognized. For the most part, academic and legalistic frameworks often depend heavily on fairly narrow legislative definitions, specifically the Convention Against Torture and its protocols, which I defined as orthodox legalism in Chapter 1. Those working at grassroot or practitioner level more often combine lived experience with legal understandings, defined as legalist hybridity, or indeed a more free-flowing focus on experience as the most significant factor in approaching survivors of torturous violence, defined as experiential epistemologies.
This chapter moves to focus almost exclusively the latter of these three categories. It is here that I draw in the oral histories of women who have survived violence at various stages of their lives, all of whom, at the time of undertaking oral histories and ethnographic research (2016–2018) were seeking asylum or had recently obtained refugee status.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of Figures and Tables vi
- About the Author vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Outline of Book x
- Introduction: Why ‘Torture and Torturous Violence’? 1
- Outlining the Definitional Boundaries of ‘Torture’ 13
- ‘Wandering Throughout Lives’: Outlining Forms and Impacts of Torture 38
- ‘I Wouldn’t Call it Torture’: Conceptualizing Torturous Violence 59
- Sexualized Torture and Sexually Torturous Violence 75
- Experiential Epistemologies: Embedding the Lived Experience of Women Survivors 101
- Unsilencing 119
- Addressing and Responding to Torture and Torturous Violence 144
- Notes 164
- References 167
- Index 181
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of Figures and Tables vi
- About the Author vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Outline of Book x
- Introduction: Why ‘Torture and Torturous Violence’? 1
- Outlining the Definitional Boundaries of ‘Torture’ 13
- ‘Wandering Throughout Lives’: Outlining Forms and Impacts of Torture 38
- ‘I Wouldn’t Call it Torture’: Conceptualizing Torturous Violence 59
- Sexualized Torture and Sexually Torturous Violence 75
- Experiential Epistemologies: Embedding the Lived Experience of Women Survivors 101
- Unsilencing 119
- Addressing and Responding to Torture and Torturous Violence 144
- Notes 164
- References 167
- Index 181
